Shinobi Rebirth
by Ohara Pirate
Summary: Ranma gets reborn into the world of ninjas, now follow his journeys as he lives his life as a Shinobi of Konoha. Ranma and Naruto Crossover. Please R&R. EDITED: Chapter 11, more content added
1. A New Beginning

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 1 – A New Beginning**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Uzumaki Noriko, and she does belong to me. Maybe I should copyright this characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** Watch as Ranma ends his old life and starts a new adventure with a new family and new friends. But as times change, some things will always stay the same. Good lord, I suck at summaries……

* * *

"characters talking" 

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

Saotome Ranma was considered to be one of the greatest young fighters ever to exist, his potential was so great that there was nearly nothing he couldn't accomplished. However in this fight against a near god-level being, there was doubt in many if he could even beat these impossible odds.

"Ahhh!" Ranma screamed out in pain after being hit by a large stream of fire.

"What's wrong, human?" Saffron mocked, "Is the heat too much for you? Perhaps if you beg for forgiveness, I'll allow you to live as my pet monkey!" He then laughed arrogantly while imagining the pathetic human dancing around in a monkey-costume.

'_This bastard…'_ Ranma angrily thought, "Fuck off, you goddamn piece of bird shit!" He screamed out while he jumped out to kick the Phoenix in the face. However just before the kick connected, Saffron grabbed his ankle, and slammed his body into the ground behind him… then slammed his body again… and again… each time causing the ground to break up further and further.

"Ugh…Gyah…" The young martial artist moaned out in pain every time his body was roughly slammed into the hard rock. Just before his body hit the ground for the 10th time, he kicked at Saffron's wrist forcing the bird to let him go… unfortunately this action caused him to go flying into the mountain wall.

'_Ugh… son of a bitch, well at least I'm not being tossed around like a sack of garbage now'_ Ranma wearily thought as he shakily got back to his feet, of course his relief was cut short by a giant fireball striking him across the chest.

"AHHHHHH!" He really cried out in pain as he heard the Phoenix King's attack, "Tenka Shunmetsu Koukyuu Dan!"

"Oh god… wha…what the hell is this … ?" Ranma moaned as he painfully landed on his back, then he felt himself being picked up by the throat. _'How can one person possibly be this strong…?'_ he thought as he saw the face of his tormentor.

"Face it, you pathetic monkey, it's all over… now is your final chance to beg for forgiveness," Saffron growled out. "If you don't, then I will just torture you in worst ways then ever thought of by any human." Ranma then muttered something but was too soft for the bird-king to hear.

"What was that?" Saffron leaned closer so he could hear. "I said… go fuck yourself, asswipe" Ranma then spitted in this face.

Saffron's face went red with anger, and he roughly threw the fighter's battered form to the ground causing his body to crumple up in pain. Wiping the spit off his face, "If that's the way you want it human…… DIE!" he screamed out in fury, while preparing fire in his hand.

However just before he could unleash his attack, he was hit in the back by a green energy-blast. "SHI-SHI HOKADAN!"

The energy blast itself didn't do much damage since Saffron's wings just absorbed most of it's power, but the shock and surprise of being struck caused his body to bend over.

"Leave him alone!" The Lost Boy screamed out, before throwing his umbrella straight for the birdman's head. But all it took was small burst of fire and the umbrella was instantly disintegrated, but Ryoga took that opportunity to use another of his patented attacks. "Bakusai Tenketsu!" He jumped up and jabbed the hard ground in front of Saffron with his finger, causing it to shatter into hundreds of sharp pieces, nearly all of them hitting his target.

"Rrrrrrrgh!" Saffron screamed out in pain, as the rocks cut through his skin and tore apart his wings.

Ryoga looked at the fallen man in shock, _'I did it. I actually did it! I hurt Saffron! Bwahahahaha, take that Ranma, this only proves that I'm stronger than you!'_ he smugly thought to himself while laughing like a maniac. _'Now Akane will love me, and soon we'll be getting married and then we'll buy a house…'_

While Ryoga was busy with his delusions of a future life with Akane, he failed to notice the Phoenix healing his wounds with his fire and looking at him with an expression that could melt Antarctica in a millisecond.

'_You damn human, nobody attacks the future King of this planet… NOBODY!'_ Saffron's eyes flared in anger and bursted into fire, and he prepared to incinerate the lowly creature before him without as much as a second thought. "Burn!" he then unleashed a huge stream of fire, which was quickly descending on the lost pig-boy who was still preoccupied with his fantasy.

"Ryoga!" Ranma screamed out at his friend which snapped him out of his thoughts. "Huh?" Ryoga turned around to see what could only be described as the flames of hell coming straight at him. _'Akane…'_ were his final thoughts just before he was completely engulfed by the attack.

Upon seeing the look of horror on Ranma's face, Saffron chuckled evilly. "I see now… you have a soft spot for these humans don't you?" He then turned his attention to the rest of the people coming towards them, which Ranma also noticed.

"No, please don't……" Ranma begged.

"Hahahahaha…" Saffron laughed darkly, before focusing fire on his hand which he shot towards the group of people who could do nothing but stare at the instrument of their destruction.

After making sure that all the humans were slowing burning to their deaths, Saffron turned his attention back to the last remaining human, hoping to catch a glimpse of shock or horror on his face. But he was extremely surprised to see Ranma just looking at him with a blank expression. "What's wrong human... don't tell me you already lost your will to live, the game was just getting good."

"You heartless bastard…" Saffron just gritted his teeth at the insult and shot off a ball of fire towards Ranma, who just grabbed the fireball right of the air. "How!" Saffron screamed out in shock, just before he had to narrowly avoid his own attack which was thrown right back at him.

Glaring at Ranma, Saffron was once again shocked to find him gone, only to reappear right in front of him with a fist lodged in his stomach and he felt his body fold up from the strength. "Ugh…" Before his opponent could get back up, Ranma quickly hit him in the back of his head with his elbow. The moment the birdman hit the ground, he kicked him right in his face sending him skidding across the ground, and he slammed into the mountain wall front-first.

The moment Saffron impacted on the mountain, Ranma ran straight for him but was forced to dodge a stream of fire by jumping to the side. Then he had to defend himself as Saffron shot off from the mountain and started to attack him using the Kinjakan, but Ranma was able to quickly dodge all of his attempts at hitting him. All the while, he was leading the Phoenix-King in an all-too familiar dance which went unnoticed by the immortal being……

It appeared as if Ranma temporarily had the upper hand in this fight since Saffron couldn't touch him, but that quickly changed when the Phoenix-King grabbed the Gekkaja and used the powers of both staffs against him. Seeing that a large burst of fire and ice was coming straight at him, Ranma focused all of his energy onto his hands and shot off one of his strongest techniques, "Mouko Takabisha!" Unfortunately, due to a lack of confidence, all that came out was this small puff of smoke which quickly dissipated into the air.

Seeing that his attack was non-existent, Ranma was forced to quickly jump out of the way but he still got partially clipped by the power of the blasts, and as a result when he landed on his back, he saw that one of his legs were horribly burnt and the other completely frozen.

'_Shit…'_ thought the severely injured fighter, but Ranma looked up to see Saffron land in the pattern he made earlier. _'But I've got him now……'_

Just before Saffron could take advantage of his opponent's weakened state, he saw a smirk on Ranma's face, and realized something. _'A trap…'_ he thought to himself in shock, and looked around to see that he was now standing in a spiral, _'… this damn human!'_

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" came the desperate cry of the now handicapped fighter. And just like that, the tide of the battle changed once again. While Saffron managed to escape the tornado by flying away, both the Kinjakan and Gekkaja were instantly destroyed by the strength of the ice tornado.

"You pathetic mortal, this ends now!" Saffron snapped angrily then prepared to put all of his remaining power into this final attack.

"Yeah… for once you said something that makes sense," Ranma emotionlessly agreed, while focusing cold energy into his fist. "Everything ends now……" He ominously finished.

At the same time both fighters attacked. Saffron shot off a fireball nearly the size of the mountain, and Ranma shot off a large cyclone-stream of ice.

"Tenka Shunmetsu Koukyuu Dan!" Saffron screamed out.

"Hiyru Hyou-Toppa" Ranma whispered.

When the two attacks collided with each other, the force was so powerful that it completely ripped apart Phoenix Mountain in a matter of seconds. Through the power struggle, it seemed that Saffron's fireball was going to overpower Ranma's ice-stream……

"AHHHHHH!" Ranma screamed out.

……but in the last moment the young fighter focused all his energy and concentration into the blast and gave it enough power to rip straight through the fireball.

"No… No… NO!" Saffron screamed out in horror as the ice blast came crashing into him, freezing his body completely which shattered to thousands when large pieces of the broken Mountain came in contact with his frozen body.

Ranma, at this point, was falling helplessly towards the ground below since the mountain was destroyed. Also while Saffron's fireball may have been slightly weakened, it still had enough power to retain most of its form and thus continued down its path straight towards the exhausted and injured boy. _'It doesn't matter anymore… I beat Saffron and avenged everyone, there's nothing else for me here,'_ Ranma tiredly thought as he felt the heat burning his body………

'_Goodbye… minna.'_

These were his final thoughts just before the fireball completely eviscerated his body, and Saotome Ranma left this world forever.

* * *

Then again every end has a new beginning, and with that said…… 

"Arashi, you bastard!" Screamed out the woman currently laying on the table and attempting to push a small baby out of her. "It's because of you that this is happening! If you ever touch me again, I'm gonna castrate you with a dull kunai!"

"Ow…" said man whimpered, and was currently on his knees crying in pain because his wife was in the middle of breaking his hand, not to mention threatening his manhood. _'Women are scary when they're mad……'_ then everything went dark for him.

Soon, the pain finally receded and the young woman began to hear a baby's cry, then looked at the doctor with hope in her eyes, just wishing to hold her baby now. "Congratulations, futari-dono. You are now the proud parents of a beautiful, healthy baby-boy," the doctor said while holding a small baby who definitely needed cleaning up.

"Oh Tsunade-sama, may I please hold him now," the woman wearily pleaded.

The doctor then pulled down her mask to reveal the Legendary Medic-Nin, Tsunade. After all who else would be better qualified to give birth to the first child of Konoha's two most prestigious ninjas. She was called in a few days earlier when it seemed like it was time for the baby to be born. Normally she wouldn't have come back to **this** village no matter what, but it was by special request from her former sensei. Plus it was her best student who was going to have a baby, Noriko was someone she genuinely cared for because of her purity and innocence. She was definitely one of a kind and deserved only the best treatment.

"Just wait a few minutes Noriko-chan, right now the baby needs to be washed, cleaned, and thoroughly examined, besides you need to rest your body." Tsunade then looked down at the floor and frowned at what she saw, "And somebody wake up Arashi as well and get him some medical attention. His hand needs to be checked out and I think he bumped his head when he fainted."

Noriko just giggled to herself at the sight of her husband unconscious on the floor, and Tsunade just rolled her eyes and muttered darkly to herself, "And men are suppose to be the dominant species in the world, yeah right."

A little while later, the proud new mother was resting in her private room, holding her newborn and making cute sounds at him, while he was grasping her finger with his tiny hands. Meanwhile the proud new father was also lying in a bed next to her, and was currently being berated by his former sensei.

"How could you have fainted, Arashi!" Jiraiya asked stumped beyond belief, "I thought I taught you better than that! Just what kind of man faints in front of his woman?" He whapped the poor man across his bandaged head for good measure, making his headache even worse.

"Gomen, Jiraiya-sensei! I don't know what happened, but you don't have to hit me!" Arashi whined, then blushed when he heard his wife giggle. She always did find it amusing how he acted around his former-sensei. It was his fault that he was nearly helpless in front of the Sannin, it's also been that way since childhood.

"Hopefully your son will grow up to be a stronger man then you," Jiraiya commented while looking over at the baby. Arashi did the same and just replied "I know he will Jiraiya-sensei, I just know it."

Knock, Knock

"Come in" The door opened, and walked in Sandaime Hokage, Tsunade, and Orochimaru holding many flowers, toys, and other various gifts.

"Ah, it seems that everyone wanted to give their best to the new parents" Sarutobi told the surprised mother, sitting down in a chair next to her after he set the flowers down on the desk. Jiraiya helped Tsunade set down the rest of the presents on the floor and desks, all the while taking the time to admire her 'assets' while giggling and whispering something about writing a book.

However he regretted doing this while standing so close to her, because not even a second later he ended up being punched through the wall courtesy of Tsunade-Power! (Which by the way is much stronger than Youth Power, so imagine how devastating it is… shudders)

While muttering an apology to everyone in the room, Tsunade angrily walked out the room while grumbling about perverts. _'That goddamn pervert, I should hang him out of the window by his own tongue,'_ threatening thoughts like this were circulating through her mind as she stomped towards a cowering Jiraiya.

Orochimaru could only sigh despairingly at his teammates' childish behaviors, and quietly set down the rest of the gifts before standing by Noriko's side to look at the baby. _'So small…'_ Orochimaru curiously thought.

A few moments later, both Sarutobi and Noriko were wincing and flinching at the sounds of Tsunade beating the stuffing out of perverted old frog-hermit while he begged for mercy. Arashi was just cheering Tsunade on, yelling about how Jiraiya shouldn't pick on his poor defenseless students. While Orochimaru was too preoccupied with the baby and just ignored everything else.

"Please Tsunade-hime, not the face, not the face!" Jiraiya pitifully cried out, which was of course ignored by the angry medic-nin.

"Ummm… ahem, as I was going to ask before, how are you feeling Noriko?" Sarutobi asked concerned for her health, besides he had long since learned to ignore the antics of his two former-students.

"I'm doing just wonderful Sarutobi-san…" Noriko replied while looking fondly at her beautiful baby-boy and caressed his cheek lovingly, "…just wonderful."

The old Hokage just smiled seeing how happy and content she looked at that moment. _'Oh yes… she was definitely meant to become a mother.'_

"Ah, Orochimaru-dono how rude of me, would you like the hold the baby?" Noriko politely asked once she realized that the Snake-Sannin was looking at the baby with a curious gleam in his eyes.

Orochimaru just slightly nodded, before carefully taking the baby from her, he then gave a small smile when he saw that the baby was gurgling in his arms. "I've never held a baby before…" he finally said after a minute of silence, "…it's quite a fascinating experience." Noriko and Sarutobi just smiled after hearing that, they never pegged the snake-sannin to be someone who liked babies.

"Oh god, I didn't mean that you should hit me down there though. Not there, please not down there…! AHHHHHH!" Another shriek was heard from outside but the pitch was much higher than before, leaving no question as to where Tsunade had hit Jiraiya.

Soon, Tsunade walked back into the room looking quite satisfied with herself, and decided to take the baby from Orochimaru and started playing with him herself. Tsunade just tightly but gently cuddled the newborn to her bosom while squealing like a school-girl. She then held at him an arm's length, examining him with a calculating look and a cute frown, "Hmmm…" before quickly hugging him again.

"Kya! He's so adorable!" Tsunade finally exclaimed. "Oh my god, I never want to let this sweetheart go! I wish I could keep him, he is just so cute!"

The baby was soon starting to 'coo' and gurgle… ummm…… gurgles of happiness! After all, who wouldn't be happy being in this type of cheerful atmosphere.

While Tsunade and Orochimaru were both admiring the baby and making comments about how cute or small he was, Sandaime was quietly talking to the new mother, "Are you sure you're feeling fine? You were in labor for a long time after all." Noriko just held the kindly old man's hand, "Hai, Sarutobi-san. There's no need to worry about me, as long as I know that my son is healthy and strong, everything is just perfect."

Arashi upon hearing that, just smiled and came to the same conclusion that was made earlier by the Old-Man Hokage, his wife was definitely destined to become a mother, the best one at that.

Sarutobi just sighed in relief, "I'm glad to hear that, Noriko. By the way, have you decided on a name yet?" Hearing that question made everyone in the room look at her with questioning eyes, all of them wondering what she would name him.

"Hmmm…" Noriko slightly pondered on that, but then turned to Arashi "What do you think he should be named, anata?" Arashi just told her that she should be the one to have that privilege, since she was the one who did all the hard work.

Then at that moment Jiraiya yelled out some of his own suggestions from out in the hallway, just before Tsunade threw a lamp at his head for suggesting stupid names like Pantsu, Bra, and Pantyhose. Honestly, Pantyhose! Tsunade just shuddered and felt truly sorry for anyone who had to introduce themselves as 'Pantyhose.' Really now, who in their right mind would allow their newborn to be given that horrid name.

A continent away in Iwagakure no Sato (Hidden Rock Village), a beautiful woman sneezed while looking at her baby who was generously named by that kind white-haired man she saw walking around in the woman's bathing house a few months back………

Arashi and Orochimaru were just shaking their heads at the sheer stupidity of their former-sensei/teammate (respectively); leave it to that super-pervert to want to name a baby after women's underwear.

Tsunade then gently handed the baby, who was surprisingly still quiet despite all the noise, back to his mother so that Noriko could be properly inspired on what to name him. After thanking her, Noriko looked deep into her baby's beautiful blue eyes and let him grasp her fingers once more, before coming up with the perfect name for her baby…

"Ranma…" Noriko quietly whispered. Everyone then turned their heads towards her, including Jiraiya was slowly crawling back in through the broken door.

"What was that again Noriko-chan?" Tsunade politely asked, since no one could hear her small whisper.

Noriko then looked up and said, "From now on, his name will be Uzumaki Ranma."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Author's Comments (R&R)

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Well that's it for the first chapter, I hope those of you who were able to read this completely enjoy it. I'm relatively a new writer so you'll have to excuse my crappy writing.

I already have the 2nd chapter all written out, but I'm gonna wait to upload it so I can make sure that I got it just the way I wanted. After all, more ideas are coming to me by the second and I need to find ways of integrating it in the story.

By the way I plan on putting this story in both the Ranma and Naruto section, since this story is going to split into two parts by the end of chapter 4 or so. Obviously the one in the Ranma section is going to cover Ranma's journey which basically means a brand new storyline, but the one in the Naruto section is going to cover Naruto's life and basically just re-shape the entire Naruto story hopefully for the better.

Also for those of you who think that Tsunade was out of character, you have to take into account that this was the first time she's seen a baby in a long time, so just imagine that her maternal instincts took over. Trust me; you'll be seeing a lot of Tsunade being all lovey-dovey with her precious little Ranma-chan.

Oh, and congratulations to those of you who recognized the character I mentioned during that Pantyhose naming thing. Hehehehehe, that's right I plan on including nearly every single Ranma 1/2 character in this story in one way or another, so be sure to be on the look-out for them.

However don't expected Ranma to hook up with any of them since I'm planning on making sure that Ranma gets hooked up with either of my created characters or one of the Kunoichi from Naruto…… actually I plan on making this a Harem story, but for those of you who despise this type of story I'm going to include a lot of drama and action so that you don't get completely disgusted.


	2. A Prodigy is Born

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 2 – A Prodigy is Born **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Uzumaki Noriko, and she does belong to me. Maybe I should copyright this characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** Watch as Ranma lives a new life as a Konoha-ninja, and how he begins his journey to become the best. But as usual, the more things change, the more they stay the same……

* * *

"characters talking" 

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

Arashi found it odd that his wife wanted to give their son her last name but soon relented after hearing her explanation. If anyone found out that he of all people had a child, then that child would be the target of enemy ninjas and assassins, after all he had made a lot of enemies over the years. Given all this, they decided that it was best that people outside of Konoha remained clueless that he had a son.

Noriko was known throughout Konoha as the prized student of Tsunade, she learn nearly everything she knows from the legendary Slug-Sannin and couldn't have gone as far as she did without her. However she didn't just live in Tsunade's shadow, Noriko was considered by many to be an elite ninja who took the level of being a ninja to a whole new level. Being a genius in medical-jutsus, a master of her own-created taijutsu style, a mistress of the swords, and having over a hundred ninpou-skills was what made her into Konoha's greatest kunoichi, 2nd only to her teacher.

However, her identify was always hidden behind a mask. Given her natural leadership ability, and all her other talents, she had quickly been accepted into the ANBU and was made captain almost immediately. She continued to stay in the ANBU the majority of her career but retired when she found out that she just couldn't be a ninja anymore. She found that being a shinobi was just too tiring both physically and mentally. Soon she got into teaching, which she found to be very gratifying and rewarding, and decided that's what she wanted to do with her life.

Despite her prestigious past and legacy, there was no danger in letting people know that Ranma was her son. The sole reason being that outside of Konoha she always operated beneath her mask, thus nobody could recognize her.

Looking at his son, who was only at the age of 1, slowly wobble towards him from his mother's arms Arashi couldn't help but puff out his chest in pride, seeing that his son was that much closer to becoming a man. However, that quickly turned to worry when he saw his son fall flat on his face.

"Ranma-chan!" Noriko cried out in worry as she rushed towards him. After both parents thoroughly check him for any injuries, they were surprised to see that the baby wasn't even crying, in fact he was giggling and waving his hands around.

If they didn't know any better, they could have sworn that he fell on purpose just to get a rise out of them seeing as how he was currently laughing his little butt off and pointing at them.

"Anata, do you sometimes get the feeling that Ranma-chan isn't your average baby?" Noriko questioned her husband while closely watching the baby to make sure nothing else was going to happen.

"Hmmm…" Arashi pondered on that for a while before sitting on the ground, calling his son to him. "Maybe… after all he is our child. You can't expect someone with our genes to come out normal." He then smiled seeing his son slowly wobble towards him once more.

Noriko's maternal senses were telling her otherwise but she conceded, happily smiling as her two favorite men bonded. However her cheerfulness instantly turned into fear when Ranma fell from his father's grip.

"WAHHHH!"

In the blink of an eye, Noriko had picked up Ranma and was trying to sooth the crying baby by rubbing his back and gently kissing his boo-boo. After a while the crying was replaced with a gentle 'coo,' but as she sighed in relief she noticed something……

"ARASHI!"

Said man looked up to see his wife stomped towards him carrying their son in her arms…… their son who currently had a large, red bump on his forehead.

Oh man, he hoped Noriko would be gentle but something told him otherwise when he saw a fist cloud his vision……

* * *

"Mama" she heard a small voice. 

Noriko who was preparing lunch for her family looked at her 2-year old son in shock. Quickly wiping her hands, she gently picked up her son from his rocker, "…did you say something, sweetie?"

"Mama!" The baby exuberantly exclaimed while waving his arms in the arms.

"Oh my god, my baby said his first word!" She gently hugged her son and kissed him many times, while praising him and telling him how she proud she was. She then heard the door open and close, and saw her husband was walking in and quickly made her way towards him to tell him the exciting news.

"Those lousy ingrates, freakin' old geezers… Sarutobi, you baka!" Arashi angrily yelled out, cursing the council for assigning him a genin team even though he specifically told them that he didn't want one. Now he was stuck with a team of 8 year old children, they weren't even close to hitting puberty yet!

The only reason that two of them even graduated this early was because they were suppose to be special. He personally knew the 1st member of his team, a girl named Rin, since his wife taught her a few medical tricks in her spare time and knew that she definitely had a bright future. He wasn't so thrilled about his 2nd member though, that Obito-kid. Sure he may be an 'elite' Uchiha but he didn't know the Sharingan yet, and he seemed to lack confidence judging by his posture and the way he walked. Granted the kid could already use Goukakyuu (Powerful Fireball), which was impressive for his young age but against veteran ninjas even that jutsu could quickly prove obsolete.

Finally, the 3rd member of his team, the infamous Hatake Kakashi. Now here was someone who he didn't mind much since he could easily take care of himself but he wasn't sure how well he would interact with his teammates. He was probably used to being around adults and high-level ninjas, since he got promoted to Chuunin at the age of 6.

Geez, how troublesome…

As he was cursing the old man hokage for being so gutless, Arashi didn't realize that his son was in the process of learning words. Although Ranma looked slightly confused at first, he quickly became happy again……

"Maka!" Both parents turned to their child, his father excited that his son had said his first word while his mother was confused as to what 'maka' was, but that turned into horrid realization when he said his next word. "Baka!" he yelled out while pointing at his mother.

Rapidly turning pale as he saw his wife turn towards him very slowly, he knew he was in trouble because she was currently doing that scary aura thing. Arashi then silently prayed that his wife was merciful……

"ARASHI!"

…… oh man, this was just not his day.

* * *

"Ranma! Ranma! Where are you!" Arashi has been yelling for his 3-year son for quite sometime now. He took the boy on a little trip to the forest so he could watch his cool dad show off his crazy ninja-skills. Noriko was against this whole trip, worried that something bad might happen to her little baby but Arashi promised that he would keep his eye on him at all times and with much convincing finally got the overprotective mother's approval. 

However the moment he turned around to get some training gear, he saw that his son had mysteriously disappeared…… Oh man, Noriko was going to kill him.

Arashi then heard a quiet giggle around him, and look around to see where it came from. He searched the bushes, behind trees, even underwater in a near by river but to no avail, then he heard it again his son's laughter. Finally pinpointing the sound, he looked up to see his 3-year son…… who was currently standing upside-down on a tree branch.

'_How…!'_ Arashi thought in amazement. It's hard even for full-fledged genins to learn how to climb trees right off the bat because of the precise chakra-control involved, yet here was his 3-year son currently doing it with the greatest of ease.

'_I knew he wasn't a normal baby, especially since he knows how to speak so coherently at such a young age, not to mention how fast he picked up words when he first started talking…'_

He then thought back to a year ago when he accidentally taught his son his first 'bad' word and shuddered. Well it's not like 'baka' was a bad word, Noriko didn't have to hit him so hard! Silently cursing Tsunade for passing her bad temper onto his wife, he turned back to his son.

'…_but still, how does he even know how to do this? Neither Noriko or I ever used any ninja-techniques in front of the baby, how could he have…?'_ Arashi just couldn't understand it, but silently continued to watch as his son was run and jump from tree to tree as if he's been doing it for years. He was even more amazed at seeing his son pull off acrobatic maneuvers that even chuunins would have trouble pulling off without getting serious cramps.

"Ranma, that's enough! Come back down here!" he yelled out to his son after a few more minutes of watching. He then held out his arms as he watched the boy jump out of the trees, and safely caught him.

"Papa, Papa! Did you see, I was running up and down the trees!" Ranma excitedly told his father, "I don't know how I did it, but I was chasing after this squirrelly and then I just ran up a tree!" He then hopped out of his father's arms, and started jumping up and down unable to contain himself. "I was scared at first 'cause I was really high up, but then I just started playing with more squirrelies hiding in the tree then you came to pick me up papa!"

Arashi then bent down on one knee, and held his son down in one place since he was getting slightly dizzy, "Ranma, are you telling me that you don't even know how you walked up the trees?" Seeing his son nod in agreement only stunned him more.

'_It's just… too amazing for words,'_ Arashi thought to himself. _'He's a natural … a natural-born ninja…… is he… he has to be… he's a prodigy…!'_

He picked up his son, and carried him over to the gentle side of the river. "Now Ranma, watch papa very closely, okay?" Arashi told his son as he set him down on the ground.

Making sure that his son was watching him, he slowly walked onto the water and took a few steps. Then he turned around to see… that his son had disappeared again! "Papa, how are you doing that?" He heard a curious voice ask from right next to him.

He looked over to see Ranma currently standing on the water next to him, looking at his feet in curiosity and a confused look. "Ummm… Ranma, you're doing it too." Arashi quietly pointed out, his son then look at his own two feet with shocked eyes. "Oh wow, I am, I am!" The ecstatic little boy screamed out before running all over the river, and jumping up and down laughing while water splashed all around him.

Curious as to what else he could do, Ranma quickly ran over to his father and jumped into his arms. "Papa, teach me more!" The exuberant child yelled out. Arashi was of course still out of it from seeing his son just accomplish a high-level genin skill that should have taken weeks of practice to accomplish.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, he walked back over to land and set his son down on the ground. "Ranma before I teach you any more tricks, I think it'll be best if we go back home to tell your mother this," Ranma only pouted, but quickly got over it when he realized he can show his mama all his cool new tricks!

"Okay!"

* * *

Noriko was very surprised to see that her husband and son had come home so fast, after all they had only just left an hour ago. But she didn't complain because she found her arms to be quickly occupied by her favorite little man, who was telling her about all the neat tricks that he did. Of course all she did was nod and just listen to her son as he excitedly talked. 

What she didn't expect was that everything he told her was true……

"What?" came the shocked whisper from Noriko. After she had put Ranma down, he ran off to play in his room, then Noriko went over to her husband and questioned him on what really happened but was surprised to find that that her son was telling her the truth.

"It's true," Arashi reassured her. "I couldn't believe it myself, he was running and jumping on the trees and water as if he was a jounin-level ninja."

"How? It's just impossible for a 3-year old baby to even gather chakra nevertheless use it in such a way." Noriko still couldn't believe that her baby-boy was able to mold and use his chakra to such levels.

"I don't know, I just don't know… but you do know what we have to do right?" Arashi looked over at this wife with a grim expression.

"Oh no…" Noriko whispered in horror, and quickly tried to put an end to such thoughts. "Oh no, you are not teaching my baby to become a ninja even before he's learned how to live!" She screamed out. "He's still a baby, dammit! He should experience happiness first before learning about misery and death!"

Arashi, seeing how his wife was now crying, went over to try and hug her only to be pushed away. "Don't touch me, you bastard." Noriko growled out, "How could you even think about doing such a thing to him!"

"Honey, you know it's the right thing to do, Ranma's been given a gift…" He was quickly interrupted though. "Don't you give me that crap about gifts and talent, and don't you dare tell me what's right! How the hell is it right to teach a baby to become a murderer!" She screamed out hysterically.

She then fell on her knees, buried her face in her hands and started to cry even harder. Arashi then bent down and hug his wife, he hugged her tighter feeling her own arms circle him. "Why… why did this have to happen? I just wanted him to grow up normal and happy, I didn't want him to become a ninja!" Noriko cried out.

"Mama…?" The two then looked up to see their son quietly standing upside-down on the ceiling. "Why are you crying?"

"Oh my god…" Noriko whispered in shock and amazement. _'It's really true……'_ She thought to herself.

"Oh baby, come down here to 'kaa-chan, don't worry you're not in trouble." Noriko said ressuredly after seeing his reluctance. After he had jump down to the ground, she went over to him and scooped him up in her arms.

"Honey, your father and I want to talk to you about something, okay?" Seeing Ranma hesitantly nod, she continued. "Do you know what your father and I am, what our jobs are?"

"Ummm… I know you fight bad guys and wear really cool clothes," Ranma replied after a few seconds, Noriko just giggled a little at her son's cuteness then quickly hugged her son tightly again. "Oh god, why my baby…?" she quietly whimpered. Arashi could only look at the woman he loved with a pained expression, hating himself for having to do this to her.

"Ranma, do you want to learn how to fight bad guys just like your mama and papa?" She finally asked after several minutes of hugging her child and crying on his shoulder. She then felt Ranma wipe away her tears with his small hands, and she looked up to see him give her the most beautiful smile she's ever seen.

"Mama, if that means I can protect you… then I want to learn how to fight, so I can protect you from dumb stupid-heads." Ranma told his mother, whom he loved more than anyone else.

Gently smiling at hearing her precious baby say that, she picked her son up and got up to face her husband. "Arashi… I'll let you teach him, but you have swear no matter what happens you will teach Ranma to become a ninja who doesn't kill." Seeing how he was opening his mouth to protest, she decided to quickly cut him off, "…it's either this or you don't teach him at all."

"Noriko, I swear to you that I will teach Ranma to be a ninja who will never use his talents to kill, a 'Pacifist Ninja…' yeah that sounds pretty cool" Arashi sighed out, but his expression slowly changed into one of determination. "However I will not hold back in my teachings, I will teach my son everything I know… Everything!"

* * *

The following month, Arashi took Ranma back to the forest where they began his intensive training nearby the riverbank. 

"Ranma, I want you to watch very carefully." Arashi told his son, who was currently sitting down in front of him, as he performed the hand seals slowly. Once he was done, he shot off a small fire dragon from his mouth which quickly made its way towards the water where it dissipated into steam.

Arashi looked over to this son, who had widened eyes and a gaping mouth. "Sugoi…" he heard Ranma whisper in fascination. Chuckling over his reaction, he made his way back to the boy, "That jutsu was called Karyuu Endan, and I want you to practice until you can create one that was about the size of mine…" Arashi then sat down on the ground to watch and warned his son, "…but be careful not to work yourself too much, because even creating a tiny dragon like that can use up a lot of chakra."

Hours later, despite all his efforts Ranma could only create a small puff of fire out of his mouth every time. _'I'm not gonna stop…'_ The small child stubbornly thought to himself. _'I'm gonna learn this stupid move, and make mama and papa proud…'_

Then for the next two weeks, Arashi continue to watch as his son work harder any 3-year old should, up to the point where all he did besides eating and sleeping was train. _'It's just mind-boggling how mature he is, if I didn't believe it before then I'm forced to believe it now…… Ranma is definitely special.'_

Finally after two weeks… "Katon: Karyuu Endan!" Ranma was able to create a relatively small dragon which quickly dispersed into the air due to a lack of energy and concentration. _'I… finally… did it,'_ the small boy wearily thought before he blacked out.

Ranma then woke up in his own bed, and saw his mother looking down at him with worry. "Oh thank heavens, I was getting so worried," Noriko quickly gathered her son up in her arms and hugged him for all his worth. Ranma turned his head to see Arashi leaning on the doorway, with a proud smile of his face not to mention the imprint of a hand.

"Well Ranma I just keep getting surprised at your rate of growth," Arashi sighed out, while rubbing his aching cheek. "I didn't think you'd even be able to use the jutsu because of the amount of chakra needed to perform that jutsu."

"Eh! Then why did you show it to me?" Ranma angrily shouted as he jumped out of his mother's arms and onto his feet.

The only response he got from his father was a slight blush and a nervous chuckle. Then he heard his mother sigh out in exasperation, "It seems that your father got overanxious and forgot that beginners have to take it slowly… even if they are prodigies," Noriko growled out. "I'm guessing if you did do the jutsu, that your father would show you off to all his other friends and gloat… most likely to Jiraiya-sama."

Blinking several times, he turned back to his father who was blushing even harder now at being caught by his wife. Laughing a little, he started jumping up and down, "Don't worry papa, I'll show all your stupid friends how great I am… then I'll kick all your geezer butts!" Noriko giggled at her son's enthusiasm, while Arashi just looked slightly offended and mumbled that he wasn't a geezer.

As if realizing something, he immediately stopped jumping and excitedly turned to face his mother. "Mama, I just remembered I have to show you my new jutsu!" Before anyone could stop him, Ranma quickly use the proper seals and blew out a small fire dragon.

"Katon: Karyuu Endan!" Ranma exclaimed, much to his parents' horror.

"NOOOOOO! NOT IN THE HOUSE!"

An hour later, and several water-jutsus used. The three ninja prodigies all stared at the burnt remains that were once their beautiful living room with a blank expression. After a few more seconds, Noriko regained her ability to move again and numbly walked into kitchen.

Seeing this, the young ninja-to-be looked up at his father with tearful eyes, "Is mama mad at me?" Ranma asked more than a little worried. Arashi just wiped the tears away with his sleeve and shook his head, "Don't worry Ranma… no matter what happens, your mother can never get mad at you."

Which is true, Noriko loved her son very much and she knew that he was going to make mistakes here and there especially since he was only 3. However, that didn't mean she couldn't take out her frustrations on her husband……

Before Arashi knew it he found his face planted on the floor courtesy of one thrown frying pan thrown by one pissed off Kunoichi. Ranma then looked up in shock to see his mother carrying another frying pan, with the scariest face he's ever seen in his young life. Oh, not to mention she was currently doing that scary red aura thing, making it look like she just walked out of the flames of hell.

"Ranma-chan…… please go up to your room while I teach your father the importance of teaching properly." Ranma then quickly ran towards his room… or rather tried to. He looked down to see what was holding him in place, and saw his father gripping his ankles looking very scared and frightened. Muttering an apology, he quickly tried to shake his father off when he realized that his grip was too strong, the young boy just punched his father in the face and quickly ran up the stairs!

Ignoring the yell of 'traitor' from downstairs, Ranma reached his room in a couple of seconds. All the while hearing his fathering begging and pleading for mercy and apologizing several hundred times, then he shuddered a little. Clapping his hand two times in front of him, he muttered a prayer for his father, "Better you than me, papa."

The young boy slept to the sounds of his mother beating the stuffing out of his father and breaking more than a few things in the process.

* * *

The next day Ranma came down to see his mother cooking breakfast and his father sitting at the table reading his newspaper. After saying morning to his mom and giving her the daily morning hug and kiss, he sat down at the table and faced his father, "Mornin' Papa…" He got slightly worried when he didn't get a greeting back. 

The young boy then turned back to his mother, "Mama, did you kill him?" Ranma asked scared.

She only giggled in response and pulled down the newspaper, Arashi looked at her questioningly and did a double-take at seeing his son already sitting at the table. He then pulled out cotton wads out of his ears which were slightly soaked in blood, "Oh, I think the bleeding finally stopped."

Ranma thought his father looked like he got beat up by over 100 guys, since he had two black eyes, a busted lip, and his face was bruised all over.

Noriko blushed in embarrassment at seeing how hurt her husband was and quickly turned back to breakfast. After all, it wasn't her fault that the man was a wuss who couldn't even take a few little hits from a frying pan…… she ignored the fact that she hit him over the head about 20 times though.

After hugging and kissing Noriko goodbye, letting Ranma do the same, Arashi took Ranma over to the forest where they could continue his training but at a slower pace. The bruised father noticed all the looks he was receiving as they were walking through the busy streets and just simple ignored it. Everyone in the village knew of Noriko's volatile temper that could rival Tsunade's at times, and promptly decided that the young ninja must have deserved it if she got that mad.

While Arashi was capable of ignoring the looks and whispers from any of the villagers, there came a voice which nobody could ignore, especially not him. "Well, well, well, it seems like my cute little student got beat up by his big bad scary wife."

"!" Arashi froze the moment he heard that voice, the voice that haunted his very worst nightmares. "You must have screwed up pretty badly if you got pounded on that much," mocked the **voice**.

Both Arashi and Ranma turned around to see the legendary frog-hermit Jiraiya casually lean against a lamp pole, while looking at his student's bruised face with a raised eyebrow and amused smirk. Nearby him stood his two companions, the legendary snake and slug sannin, Orochimaru and Tsunade, who were looking equally amused.

Arashi just flushed at being picked on by his former-sensei, "Jiraiya-sensei, I don't think you should be one to talk. Especially since you get beat up worse then this daily, you dumb senile old pervert!" he yelled out prematurely.

Of course before he could realize his mistake and apologize profusely, he quickly found himself trapped in a headlock by the frog-sannin. "What was that you little brat, don't think just because you were my cute little student I'm gonna go easy on you," Jiraiya yelled out while grinding Arashi's face in his armpits.

"Oh god, it smells, it really stinks. Please let go Jiraiya-sensei, I'm suffocating here!" the poor man begged, but alas it was heard by deaf ears.

While teacher and student were having their 'touching' reunion, Tsunade and Orochimaru took the opportunity to play with Ranma. Well more like Tsunade was playing with him, while Orochimaru just kept starring at him. "Awww, you're just as cute as ever Ranma-chan!" she squealed, while cuddling and suffocating the poor (?) boy in her ample chest.

As Tsunade was too busy hugging his little body, she didn't notice Ranma slowly turning blue and flailing his little arms in an attempt to get her attention. After a few more minutes, Orochimaru tapped her on her shoulder and pointed down to the now-limp boy, "I think you killed him, Tsunade."

Panicking Tsunade quickly let go of the boy and held him at an arm's distance where he just looked like a broken doll. Getting really scared she started shaking him furiously hoping to revive him, "Oh my god, oh god! Wake up Ranma-chan, wake up!"

After a few more shakes he finally started to move again, which made her sigh in relief and hug him to her chest once again, this time more gently though. "Oh thank goodness, I don't know what I would have done if you were hurt, not to mention what Noriko-chan would have done to me." She shuddered just the tiniest bit, her former student could be pretty scary at times.

When Ranma was done catching his breath, he slowly hug Tsunade back which delighted her greatly and made her to 'kya' in girlish delight. After a few more seconds, the small boy pushed himself off of her and looked at both of them curiously. "What are you all doing here anyway?" He asked suspiciously, "You're not stalking me are you…?"

Tsunade and Orochimaru only shook their heads amused, still surprised at the young boy's vast vocabulary and strange maturity. She then picked the child up and held him in her arms, "Oh no, well maybe that old pervert over there was, but we…" pointing to Orochimaru and herself, "…were just looking for Jiraiya, and when we saw him following the two of you, we decided to tag along."

Tsunade then walked over to the teacher-student duo, who were still fighting with each other, with Orochimaru following slightly behind. After taking a moment to kick the two idiots back to reality, Tsunade asked Arashi where they were going. When he responded to the forest to train, the legendary three decided to come along, all of them curious to see the small baby could possibly do.

'_What the hell… why is he even bothering? He of all people should know that there's no way for a 3-year old to gather chakra and mold it properly, it's just impossible,'_ Jiraiya thought in exasperation.

Similar thoughts were circulating through Orochimaru and Tsunade's minds, but they all played along anyway if only to raise the boy's confidence. Of course they all seemed to forget that Ranma was not your normal child……

They were reminded of that when they reached the forest and saw Ranma run up a tree and start jumping all over the place, sticking to various places here and there. Noticing that his mentors were speechless, Arashi took the chance to tell them that the boy could also walk on water, and even use a high-level Fire technique.

Hearing this and watching the boy do his thing for a few more moments, the three sannin turned to each other and nodded. Walking away from hearing-distance, the three of them huddled together and spoke quietly but furiously, probably about something very important since it took something of a catastrophic-level for those three to agree on something and work together.

Finally after a few more minutes of curious blinking, Arashi watched as the three break out of the huddle, clap their hands, and yell out "Yosh!" (Can you imagine Orochimaru doing that?)

They walked back over to him, where Tsunade called for Ranma to come back down. After a few seconds, she caught the excited boy as he jumped straight into her arms and started chattering about how cool it was doing that. Taking a moment to cuddle him once again (geez, she really loves holding this kid doesn't she?) she just held him in her arms, gently nuzzling his cheek with her own.

Then the three sannin simultaneously turn their heads over towards Arashi, who got really freaked out by that, and Jiraiya said something that would change and define Ranma's ninja career forever.

"Arashi… We have decided that from this moment on. We, the Legendary Three Sannin, will be teaching Ranma in the arts of the ninja as well."

To say that Arashi was surprised was like saying the sun was hot or the planet was big, because at that moment he just fainted from shock. But not before hearing his son yell out in excitement and saying how he couldn't wait to tell his mama……

……oh man, Noriko was going to kill him!

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Author's Comments (R&R)

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Finally I think this chapter is about as perfect as I can get it. For all of you who think that Ranma talking like coherently like an adult and learning chakra control at the age of 3 is BS, take this into account. Hatake Kakashi became a chuunin at age 6 and jounin at age 13. Uchiha Itachi graduated from the academy at age 7, mastered the Sharingan at age 8 and made captain of the ANBU at age 13. Uzumaki Naruto mastered a technique created by a Hokage himself in less than a week at age 12. Finally, Uchiha Sasuke in just a single month, suddenly got 10 times faster while at the same time learning how to do Chidori. a high-level jutsu created by a genius jounin. Oh yeah and Rock Lee, who was suppose to be taking time to recover, became nearly as good as he was before his injuries just hours after surgery……

Please after all that I think I'm entitled to some BS of my own, don't you think?

Also I'm glad I change Noriko into becoming the #1 student of Tsunade's since it comes together more better this way. I mean this would explain why those two are so close with each other, plus the fact that they are a lot alike. They're both beautiful, smart, great at medical-techniques, anger-prone, strong, quick to act, they have great bodies, overprotective of Ranma…… I could go on and on, but you all get the point.

What's scary about this is that I didn't even mean to make her like Tsunade, I just created Noriko like this to add some slapstick comedy to this story. But when I realized what I had done, I decided to change some things hopefully for the better.

I already have chapter 3 completely written out… and I mean completely as in done, finished! But I'm gonna wait to upload it so you guys can simmer and stew.


	3. That Infamous Day…

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 3 – That Infamous Day…**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Uzumaki Noriko, and she does belong to me. Maybe I should copyright this character, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** Finally Ranma begins training with many great masters… and then that infamous day arrives.

* * *

"characters talking" 

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

Sitting on a sofa, now emotionally and mentally exhausted, was one Uzumaki Noriko. She couldn't believe what she had just heard from her husband. "So you're telling me that those three…" pointing to the three legendary ninja standing behind her husband "… want to teach our son? Our 3-year old son!"

Nervously nodding seeing how his wife was shaking in anger and clenching her fist, "Koishii, believe me I had nothing to do with this decision." He pointed at Jiraiya and stuttered out, "I think the old geezer is losing his mind! He must have been hit in the head once too many times by an angry mob of women he's peeked on!"

In hindsight that might not have been the best thing to say since in the next moment he found himself in a strong sleeper-hold which was slowly cutting off his oxygen. "What was that, Arashi!" Jiraiya had apparently heard enough from his insolent ex-student.

Ignoring the two idiots once more, Tsunade just sat down next to her kouhai (student/protégé) and gently held her hand while ressuredly rubbing her shoulder. "Noriko-chan, I know that this might be too much to take in all at once," she began to say, "but this is for the best, Ranma-chan has a gift and if you really love him you'll let us help him with that gift."

Noriko could only look despairingly at her former teacher whom she idolized for so long. "Oh Tsunade-sama, how can you say that?" she sighed out miserably and buried her face in her hands. "How can you possibly ask me to do this? Letting Arashi teach Ranma was a hard enough decision for me to make, but now you're asking me to let three of the strongest ninjas I know teach my son how to become a real killer."

Tsunade could only look at the young lady next to her in pity. She tightly hugged the distraught woman and let her cry on her shoulders. She secretly knew why Noriko was taking this so hard, at least with Arashi she knew that Ranma would not grow up to be a killer since she forced him to swear that he would teach him to be a 'Pacifist Ninja.' But with the legendary trio teaching the boy, the chances of him becoming your everyday-ninja who murders on a daily basis increased greatly.

Tsunade knew how hard it was to watch a loved one become a ninja, it either made them into a murderer or a corpse. It pained her to think of how many young lives were cut short because of this profession. If it was anyone else she would have never agreed to teach them even if it was her own offspring. However she saw the unlimited potential in Ranma, to have that child grow up without ever living up to that potential would be a crime. A crime she just couldn't allow to take place no matter how much her own heart protested. This was the sole reason she supported their decision, otherwise she would have stood by Noriko's side and protect Ranma from ever knowing the harsh truths of this cold dark world.

Meanwhile, the boy in question stood by Orochimaru watching as his father got beat up by Jiraiya and as his mother was crying on Tsunade's shoulders. Ranma looked up to the snake-sannin with a puzzled look, "What's wrong with mama? Why's she crying?" he asked worried.

Orochimaru only looked down at the child with a kind expression, "Your mother is just faced with yet another very difficult choice and unfortunately Tsunade was the one chosen to convince her."

After a few more soothing words, Tsunade helped Noriko up and they walked over to Orochimaru and Ranma. Kneeling down, Noriko picked up Ranma and held him preciously as if he was a porcelain doll. "Oh baby, listen closely okay?" Seeing him nod, she was reminded of this same type of situation taking place just last month, and shuddered.

Feeling his mother shake, Ranma quickly hugged her to make her feel better. Feeling the arms of her child, Noriko gathered her courage and quietly told him that she'll let him learn jutsus from Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru as well as from his father.

Ranma was ecstatic that his mama was going to let him learn from the best, but felt really sad and guilty because he knew that this was making her feel sad, so he just hugged her tighter. "Mama, if you don't want me to then I won't become a ninja. I don't want you to cry anymore," Hearing this, Noriko just looked at her precious baby-boy through tear-filled eyes.

"Oh no baby, mama's not sad… she's very happy…" She stuttered out just before she quickly put him down and ran up to her room. After a few seconds everyone could hear the poor woman cry her heart out.

"I'll go talk to her," Tsunade whispered, as she went up to try and console her former student once more. Arashi and Jiraiya, who had stopped fighting after Noriko left, could only look upstairs in sadness. "Oh Jiraiya-sensei, why did things have to turn out this way?" Arashi mumbled pathetically, Jiraiya could only place his hand over his student's shoulders in pity because he himself had no answer for that question.

Orochimaru just sighed, unable to take any more of this emotionally draining day. He looked at the boy beside him, and sadly sighed once more at what he saw.

Ranma was just starring at the stairs quietly crying, "mama… please don't cry" he whimpered helplessly.

* * *

3 months later, Noriko had much time to calm down especially since Tsunade had promised her that they (The Sannin) would respect her wishes and teach Ranma to be a 'Pacifist Ninja.' Of course when Jiraiya and Orochimaru heard this, they tried to convince both the kunoichi otherwise but were forced to abide under Tsunade's fist and her threat of castrating them her own unique way. Hmm… well what do you know, guess there are things worse than death. 

While Noriko may not have liked the idea of her baby becoming a ninja, she took some comfort in knowing that at least he wouldn't end up as a cold-blooded killer. Thus she accompanied Ranma during his training at his own request (actually he just cried and gave her the puppy-dog eyes), whenever she had free time from teaching.

So now here she was sitting near the riverbank, holding her excited son in her lap while watching her husband go through a very complex kata. The strange thing was that he was moving very fast, so fast that even her sharp eyes was having trouble picking up some of the movements that he made. Noriko had no idea why her husband was moving so quickly, how could their son possibly emulate this if he couldn't even see it. Finally coming to a stop after a few minutes, Arashi took a moment to catch his breath back before calling for Ranma.

Helping her baby to his feet, Noriko watched as he ran over to his father. "Now Ranma, were you watching what I was just doing?" Arashi asked his son, who just nodded. "Alright then, I want you to do the exact same thing. Okay?" the boy nodded again before beginning to stretch since his father told him it was better to relax his muscles before doing exercises.

Arashi then told his son to wait for his command, and walked back over to his wife and sat by her side, "Noriko-chan, watch him very closely and don't blink even for a second." Seeing that she was looking at him with a curious expression, he silently chuckled. _'This is gonna be interesting,'_ he mischievously thought to himself, before telling his son to begin.

In the next few minutes Arashi was trying very hard not laugh outloud as his wife's jaw was slowly reaching the ground by the second. "Incredible…" he heard her whisper, but he couldn't really blame her for her reaction since he and the others pretty much did the same thing when they saw him do this for the first time.

Soon into Ranma's training, all his teachers learned one important factor that made teaching the boy much easier… Ranma was able to instantly recognize, copy, and learn someone's fighting style perfectly. Meaning that he'll be able to master a fighting style in just a few weeks, days even, that'll otherwise take years to even properly learn never mind mastering.

It wasn't just normal copying either like the Sharingan, the boy was able to take any kind of taijutsu technique and hone it to perfection. So if he ever saw a beginner use a clumsy technique he'd be able to instantly correct any mistakes they made and use that same move in it's perfect form, as if he was the who created it. Not to mention, he was also able to pinpoint the weaknesses of any particular Taijutsu style, so that he could counter anything that was used against him.

"Did you notice love?" Arashi asked his stunned wife as his son finished up the kata. "How could I not, he just perfectly copied your movements, granted he did it much slower by its still amazing," Noriko was still in disbelief, but turned when she heard her husband chuckle.

"What's so funny, Arashi?" She asked impatiently, tightening her lips, she hated not know what was going on, and she hated even more at being laughed for not knowing what was going on. Seeing that his wife was getting irritated, he quickly tried to calm her down. "It's not just that, I purposely made several mistakes in that kata, minor mistakes that only someone paying very close attention for them would notice," he pointed out.

He explained further, seeing how that just confused Noriko even more since he could see question marks dancing around her head. "Our son just did performed those movements perfectly with none of those mistakes whatsoever, despite this being his first time ever seeing this particular kata."

Noriko finally seemed to understand then froze in shock, _'Wait…'_ and looked at her husband in amazement. "How the hell…" she mumbled out, "How could he have done it perfectly if you purposely made mistakes that were barely even noticeable, not to mention when you were moving that fast." She just couldn't believe it……

"I have no idea, but I for one am definitely not complaining," Arashi proudly said as he watched their son walk towards them.

Catching a glimpse of her husband's watch, Noriko slightly panicked. "Ah shoot, I didn't realize it was so late, I have to go home and make dinner," she got up and patted her dress down, then hugged and kissed her husband and son goodbye.

As Noriko was leaving, she kept pondering on what she witnessed with her own two eyes and found that she just couldn't deny the truth anymore. Her son was meant to be a ninja, why else would he have been given these wondrous talents. _'Hmmm…I wonder if his memorization only applies to just hand-to-hand combat……'_ Noriko curiously thought as she left the forest.

As both father and son watched her leave, they turned towards each other and smirked. "Well, looks like your kaa-chan's not here to protect you anymore chibi," Arashi mocked. The only response he got to that was his son jumping towards him and attempting to knee him in the face, which he quickly just parried to the right and performed a spin kick which hit the boy in his back and sent him skidding along the ground making a small canal in the dirt.

Arashi watched as his son quickly recover and jump to his feet, and saw him use the hand seals to the very first jutsu he ever learned. _'Oh yeah, he's definitely going to become the greatest…'_ he proudly thought as he saw the fire dragon descend on him……

* * *

…… then he quickly jumped to the side, just narrowly avoiding the attack. However Ranma predicted this and quickly ran towards Jiraiya and hurled himself forward into the air, but not before throwing some kunai and shuriken at the white-haired man's feet forcing him to jump up into the air as well. 

Meeting him head on, Ranma quickly engaged Jiraiya in hand-to-hand combat. Ranma found out early on in his training that he fought better in the air then he did on land, strange as that may sound. Anyway, the young ninja quickly used a spin-kick aimed at the old man's head, but that was easily caught and Jiraiya swung him around before roughly hurling him towards the ground.

While it may seem like he was being cruel, the frog-hermit knew better than to underestimate the young child especially since he took advantage of any opportunity or weakness he saw. Just as he suspected, the moment the boy hit the ground his body 'poofed' into smoke, and Jiraiya once again had to defend himself as Ranma came shooting towards him from behind.

Just as he countered an uppercut, Jiraiya saw the boy 'poof' into a log while falling down. _'Hmmm… not bad, Kage Bunshin and then Kawarimi…'_ he was pretty impressed with the boy's timing. Still in mid-air (they must have jumped really high before) he saw the real Ranma down below performing familiar hand-seals for one of his own personally-created Jutsus……

* * *

…… "Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Skill: Swamp of the Underworld)!" Ranma yelled out as he slammed his hand onto the ground creating a large swamp in front of him. 

The Snake-Sannin had to think quickly if he wanted to escape drowning in swamp water. So he just used his extended tongue to wrap around a branch and used that to swing towards the ground.

'_Oh man, that is so cool!'_ Ranma excitedly thought, _'Too bad mama forbade Orochimaru-sama from teaching me that jutsu since it creeped her out.'_ As he was preoccupied with his thoughts, he failed to notice the kunai flying towards him.

"Gah!" Ranma yelled out in pain, as the kunai flew past him leaving a shallow cut on his right cheek. "Now, now, Ranma you know better than to let your mind wander during a fight," Orochimaru lectured.

"Suman, suman, but… I'm not going to let it happen again!" The young boy loudly declared as he used Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Skill: Water Explosion Technique) with the river as a medium of water. Surprised by the speed and strength of the jutsu, Orochimaru soon found himself deep underwater. Quickly swimming back towards the surface, he looked around for Ranma only to see him in the corner of his eye finishing up a hand seal.

"Suiton: Suirou no Jutsu (Water Skill: Water Prison Technique)!" the sannin heard before he found himself trapped in a water-sphere. Very impressed by the boy's intelligence and strategy, Orochimaru wondered what Ranma would do now. Since he had to use one hand to maintain the jutsu he was pretty much helpless too. That was his initial thought before he saw another Ranma standing in front of him, realizing that the one maintaining the prison was a Kage Bunshin, he just waited to see what the real Ranma would have up his sleeve……

* * *

…… and looked on in shock as several snakes came out of it, all of them rushing towards her, all of them baring their fangs. Silently cursing Orochimaru, Tsunade gathered her strength and forcibly punch through the thick water to hit the prison walls causing it to explode. Even before she landed on her feet, she simultaneously destroyed the Kage Bunshin with a kick and grabbed the snakes just before they touched her. Then she pulled on them hard, sending the poor boy at the other end flying towards her, but just before she could do anything she saw another clone strongly jump off his back. 

The force of the jump cut Ranma's flight short, sending him to land on the water on his hands and knees, then he quickly recovered to strike at Tsunade's stomach with a punch. She instantly used an elbow to block the small fist, causing the boy to yell out in pain before she just casually kicked him away. When she saw the boy disappear in a cloud of smoke, she realized that it was just another clone. So the real one was probably the one who just jumped……!

Looking up, she saw the real Ranma coming straight down at her, as she was about to jump away she found herself unable to do so. Looking at her feet, she saw two more clones underwater gripping her ankles, efficiently holding her down. However she just used her monstrous strength, easily overpowering them, and jumped backwards onto her hands. At the same time she quickly swung her legs upward and used the clones that were still stupidly latched onto her ankles as giant clubs.

As Ranma came shooting down, he found himself being hit across the chest by his own clones, which got destroyed on impact, before skipping along the water back onto the riverbank.

Shaking away the pretty birdies around his head, he saw Tsunade dash towards him fist first and he wisely jumped away just as she punched the ground in front of him, causing a large portion to break up and collapse. Taking a moment to panic and gulp at the thought of what would have happened if she had really been aiming for him, Ranma gathered chakra to his hand to use Shosen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique) and finished just as he landed back on the ground.

Then he rushed towards her unprotected back, before stopping to bend over backwards to avoid an oncoming spin-kick. Just as her leg passed over his face, he quickly touched it with his chakra-covered hand, making sure to only hurt the muscles and not cut them, forcing her to get on one knee and grab her leg in pain.

He thought he had the advantage now before she looked up with a smirk and said, "Gotcha, cutie" before 'poofing' away. _'Shoot… a Kage-Bunshin!'_ Then he turned around just in time to see her flick him in the forehead with her index finger causing him to fly back several feet away, and land painfully on his back. Rubbing his forehead in irritation, he felt a pair of lips on his cheek and opened his eyes to see Tsunade standing in front of him with a proud smile decorating her beautiful face.

When they heard clapping, they confusedly looked around to see Arashi, Jiraiya and Orochimaru standing on the trees nearby. "Nani? What are you bums doing here, today's my day to teach Ranma-chan," Tsunade irritably shouted.

"Oh yeah, we can see how well you're teaching him Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya mocked before making smooching sounds at her, causing Arashi to snicker and Orochimaru to smirk. It seemed that they all enjoyed teasing Tsunade at her own expense.

Tsunade just turned red in anger and embarrassment, and quickly ran for Jiraiya who decided to amscray. You could see trees falling down left and right, as Tsunade plowed through the forest in her pursuit to wring the pervert's neck.

As Jiraiya and Tsunade were running around, Arashi and Orochimaru walked over Ranma who was just looking at them in confusion. He was still thinking about what Jiraiya did and why Tsunade got all angry, _'All adults except for mama are weird…'_ he finally decided after seconds of contemplation.

"Ano, papa, Orochimaru-sama, why are you guys here anyway? Tsunade-chama's not done teaching me today," Ranma curiously asked.

Arashi just bent down and looked his son in the eye, "Well Ranma, we've decided that it was time to give you a special present for being such a good student," he said while grinning. Ranma then saw Orochimaru set down a large scroll on the ground and open it. Before he could take a peek at it, Tsunade punched her way out of the forest dragging along a badly-beaten Jiraiya behind her, dropping the pervert onto the ground, she looked at Orochimaru with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tsunade said with open hostility, "Don't you think it's still too early for him to learn that, besides why do you get to be the one to set up the contract? I wanted Ranma to make a pact with my summoning."

'_Summoning?'_ Ranma had no idea what that was but thought it sounded cool.

"Actually Tsunade-sama…" Arashi politely intervened "… we've decided that Ranma would make a pact with all three of your summonings."

Ranma only watched as Tsunade's eye grow wide and her mouth gape. "What the hell is wrong with you, Arashi! THREE PACTS! Are you nuts!" She shrieked in anger, "You know it's hard enough for even a jounin-level ninja to keep one summoning under control, how do you expect a 3-year old to control 3 of them!" (Oh I think I made an unintentional joke, cool)

Ranma only looked indignant at being treated like a baby by his 2nd most favorite person in the world… ignoring the fact that he technically was still a baby.

"Ora, ora, Tsunade-hime control yourself." Jiraiya groaned out as he finally gained consciousness and wiped the blood off his nose before standing up, "You of all people should know that Ranma is special, especially since you spend almost as much time with him as his mother does."

"I agree with the buffoon for once, Tsunade." Orochimaru calmly stated, while Jiraiya just glared at him for the insult. "It's time you accept facts, and quit coddling the boy. We all have faith that he'll be able to accomplish this, well maybe Manda might be trouble but I don't think even he could refuse that cute face." Orochimaru then made his way to Ranma with the open scroll, place it in front of him, and start to explain what he should do.

'_Damn you, damn all of you… I know he's special but still…… I just don't want him to get hurt,'_ Tsunade worriedly thought as she saw Ranma bite his thumb and write his name in the scroll…

* * *

After 4 more months of exhausting training, Ranma finally learned how to summon each of the Sannins' summonings. Granted if he wanted to summon all three of the frogs, snakes, and slugs at once, he could only summon medium-sized ones about Jiraiya's height. If he tried to summon any of the bosses, then he'd usually be unable to enjoy it since he always fainted from being drained of all his chakra.

Gamabunta at seeing that a small child summoned him just huffed indignantly, refusing to believe that this baby actually created him. However, he soon relented after learning that he was the offspring of **that** man, someone he actually respected for his great strength, intelligence, and leadership abilities. Of course he still hated Jiraiya with a passion… that dumb pervert.

Katsuya just gently looked at the boy and consented to him being her latest master. She always was the kindest of the 3 summonings.

Manda, on the other hand, was trouble right from the get go. As Orochimaru predicted, the moment he was summoned he thought the unconscious young boy was dessert and tried to eat him but he soon regretted doing so when he found some fangs missing courtesy of Tsunade-Power! Combine that with her righteous female anger, it was a miracle that the giant snake wasn't punched straight to the moon. Under the combined threats of both Tsunade and Noriko, Manda finally consented to the boy being his master, but he didn't have to like it though! He regretted yelling that too since he shrunk about 100 sizes under the combined glares of the teacher-student kunoichi duo and quickly vamoosed.

* * *

A few weeks later, Ranma still couldn't summon the bosses without fainting but he was getting a lot better. Around this time, he could stay awake for 6 seconds before blacking out, 6 whole seconds! Yay!

But that currently wasn't the problem, the problem was that the boy in question was missing from their weekly summoning session in which all 4 of them taught him at once. So they spend the rest of that day searching the forest for the boy, yelling out his name every now and then.

Arashi soon heard some noises deep in the forest and decided to check it out. What he saw shocked him to whole new levels, as he was currently watching his son practicing with a heavy training sword…… being taught by his mother of all people!

He tried to say something but found his mouth to be covered by a large hand, and he looked behind him to see Jiraiya just shaking his head and Tsunade and Orochimaru casually sitting in the trees just watching the sight before them. He then turned back to the mother-son duo and continued to watch in fascination as his wife taught their son the importance of the sword.

"Now Ranma-chan you have to remember that a katana is not just a weapon, but an extension of your own body." Noriko lectured her son as he swung the heavy sword at a badly-abused tree for the 100th time. "Once you've master the sword, you'll feel as if the Katana is part of your body, even your very soul, thus you must treat it with care and respect. You can't just carelessly swing it around like some dumb ape… or like your father or Jiraiya-sama would."

Ranma just nodded as his mother continued her lecture and he swung the heavy sword. He never expected this, not even in a million years but he wasn't complaining, he got to spend more time with his mother and learn cool new tricks at the same time.

His mama rocked!

* * *

Finally on his 4th birthday, he watched as his papa, mama, Jiraiya-sama, Orochimaru-sama, Tsunade-chama, even Hokage-jiichan, and several other ninjas all stood around him, looking at him quite intently… it was starting to freak him out.

He watched as his father step forward, bow to the Hokage and the Sannin, before turning his attention to him. "Ranma, the entire council has unanimously decided to make a very special exception for you, despite your young age …" his father started, while Ranma just looked even more confused, "so it is my great honor to bestow upon on you, Uzumaki Ranma, the title of Konoha Jounin…"

Ranma just gaped and look at his father with wide, shock eyes, before he could celebrate though Arashi continued to talk. "Under one condition…" He took off his vest and threw it to the side, "…you have to last 5 minutes in a serious fight against me."

Arashi then threw a kunai at his son's feet which was seen as nothing but a blur and caused the hard ground to crack apart into huge pieces. Ranma, who fell on his butt, looked at the ground around him in shock then turned to his father with large scared eyes, _'This is what he's like when he's serious! He just blew up the ground with a dumb kunai!'_ He's never seen his father fight seriously before… in fact he's never seen any of his teachers fight seriously, especially not against him.

But he gulped down his fears and gathered his courage in his little tummy. He then unsheathed his sword, and got into fighting posture. The last thing he could remember seeing was his father smiling proudly before everything became a blur……

"Ugh…" Ranma woke up with a moan. _'Where am I?'_ he wearily thought and tried to get up before wincing in pain and dropping back onto the bed. He looked around to see that he was in a white room… a hospital? When did he get…

Before he could finished that train of thought a voice cut through his headache. "He's finally awake!" he heard the voice yell out. _'Tsunade-chama…?'_ But once again his train of thought was cut off as he felt himself being hugged very tightly and two large breasts in his face. _'Yup, it's Tsunade-chama alright.'_

He then saw his mother looking at him with large teary eyes before she quickly took Tsunade's place and hugged her son for everything he was worth, which was apparently a lot. "Mama, what's wrong? Why are you crying, you too Tsunade-chama. Ow, owie what happened to me?" Ranma asked while clutching his head, "The last thing I remember was papa running towards me…"

He was then gently placed back onto the bed, while the two women sat on opposite sides of the bed. "Congratulations chibi, you did it…" he looked up to see his father, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and the Hokage walk into the room while carrying a whole bunch of gifts.

"Eh, did what?" Ranma asked very confused, _'How did I even get here?'_ Then he saw his father walk towards him and wrap something around his forehead, so he curiously started touching it. It felt like metal on a soft cloth, there was something engraved in the middle though, it felt like… "Konoha's Mark! A Hitai-ate!" the wide-eye boy exclaimed. "I passed! I'm a jounin now!"

He would have jumped up in glee, but his migraine was too painful for him so he was forced to lay back down. "Congratulations Ranma, I look forward to seeing your many accomplishments in the near-future," Sarutobi told his newest jounin. Ranma had never met the old man that much before, since he was always buried under paperwork… guess being Hokage wasn't all that great if you couldn't even go out and play a little.

The old man then sighed miserably, and walked back towards the door. "Sorry that I can't stay long, but I have to get back to the office before my assistant hunts me down," he sighed one more time before leaving.

"Awww… I feel sorry for him, his job must really suck." Ranma said after a few seconds of silence.

"Oh yeah it really does, you'll never see me accepting that horrible job even in a million, billion years." Tsunade boasted… irony sure does suck doesn't it folks?

After the Hokage left, Jiraiya and Orochimaru congratulated him in their own ways, with Orochimaru giving him a rack of shiny new weapons and Jiraiya giving him an autographed copy of the very first volume of 'Icha-Icha Paradise.' Then the pervert watched in horror as Noriko grabbed it out of the boy's small hands and threw it out the window, before he could protest he saw a very familiar fist come into view before everything went dark. The force of Tsunade's punch sent her old teammate straight out the window as well.

Wow, teacher and student sure do work well together, don't they?

Outside, a silvered-haired 10 year-old Chuunin was walking by the hospital when a book hit him in the side of the head. "Hmmm… 'Icha-Icha Paradise?' Sounds interesting," Hatake Kakashi said in the moment that would redefine his life, and turn him into one of the greatest perverts ever known! 3rd only to Jiraiya-sama and Sandaime Hokage-sama! So entranced with the book that he never even noticed the large man crashing into the bushes……… fear the power of 'Icha-Icha Paradise!'

Inside, experiencing a sweatdrop was a new thing to the young jounin in bed, so that's why he was picking at the one on his forehead with fascination before Noriko just flicked it away. "You shouldn't play with those things baby, they could cause your face to warp into something ugly," warned his mother.

Arashi then coughed into his hand and apologized. "Gomen minna-san, but I have to go meet my team right now, I'll be home early so we can all celebrate together… that is if Jiraiya-sensei is still alive," then the blond-haired man kissed his wife and son goodbye, before quickly disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Meanwhile the lucky little tyke had two beautiful women all to himself, even if one was his mother and the other was technically way too old for him. Plus he was no way close to hitting puberty yet, so he didn't know anything about women, all he knew was that he was glad he had company and that he was a jounin……

'_Hey wait…'_ he thought in realization, before quickly turning to his mother. "Mama, what's a Jounin?" Ranma curiously asked, both Noriko and Tsunade just sweatdropped after hearing that……

Later that night, everyone Ranma knew was at his Jounin-initiation party, even Hokage-jiichan! Guess he made a special exception to show up. There were also some people he didn't know there, like his papa's team and Tsunade-chama's personal student. Actually he had met Kakashi once before, but the guy was really weird…… he was able to eat food through his mask! 

Which was currently the reason why Ranma was standing next to him, constantly poking Kakashi in the cheek in his index finger. "Come on, take it off. You can't be that ugly under that mask," Ranma reasonably argued, but the stubborn Chuunin was being well… stubborn! "Awww… don't be so mean, ummm… Half-Face!"

Seeing Kakashi turn to him with slight confusion in his eyes, he elaborated "I'm gonna call you Half-Face from now on since only half your face is visible all the time!" He then grinned at thinking up such a great name for the guy, but was sorely disappointed when all he did was just turn around back to that stupid book… hmmm… that book looked really familiar, oh well.

He had already opened all his neat presents awhile ago, and he had gotten his presents from Jiraiya and Orochimaru earlier during the day. Tsunade had given him a medical and weapon pouch so that he could fix himself up any time he wants while defending himself, he gave her a great big hug and a kiss on the lips which quickly turned her into red mush.

Hokage-jiichan had given him a few jutsu-scrolls and a… mission scroll! "Oh my god, thank you 'jii-chan!" Ranma loudly exclaimed before hugging the old man's neck, Sarutobi only chuckled a little and hugged the boy back before setting him back down. Of course the mission was fairly low-ranked (B) for a jounin and it had been assigned for the following month, since the old man was sure that Noriko and Tsunade would want to spend a lot of time with the boy. After all he was in a coma for nearly 1 and 1/2 weeks after fighting his father……

His parents had given him brand new clothes, which would have been a terrible gift…… if the clothes hadn't been really cool looking! Oh, there was even a white-leather jacket in there (picture the one that Kyo wears from King of Fighters), wow his parents were pretty cool for old people. It was super-big though but he'd grow into it. Ah, sunglasses too! Wai-wai!

Everyone else in the party just gave him money since they didn't really know what he liked, however that cute student of Tsunade's had given him a cool looking wallet with a horsey on it. He thought it was pretty neat since his name meant "Wild Horse," so he gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek which caused the 9-year old girl to turn really red before she ran away from him. Looking more than a little confused, he just came to the same conclusion he made about adults a year ago, _'All girls except for mama and Tsunade-chama are weird…'_

In fact, turning around, he could still see her hiding from him! What was her name again, Kizune? Tizune? Bizune? Oh well, he'll ask Tsunade-chama later but right now back to important matters! "Come on, take that stupid mask off!" Ranma whined to the boy next to him, which was just ignored.

* * *

The rest of the year went by as a blur especially since the war between Konohagakure no Sato (Hidden Leaf Village) and Iwagakure no Sato (Hidden Rock Village) was escalating so far that every available ninja in Konoha was called in to join. Including Ranma… 

At this decision, Noriko became hysterical and Arashi was screaming at Hokage to please change his decision, while Tsunade, Jiraiya, and even Orochimaru to an extent were seething in anger. However they had to consent at the request of Ranma, he just looked…… so adult, which wasn't a good thing considering his age. They couldn't help but be proud as he stood there by the Hokage's side, wearing his Konoha Hitai-ate and Jounin's vest. But they quickly went back to their previous emotions when he left for war… war… WAR!

They just couldn't believe it, a 5-year old… **their** 5-year old was leaving off to fight in a goddamn war! Tsunade just couldn't take it anymore and soon left the village with Shizune a few days after Ranma had left. As she was leaving, one could see that she was crying intensely, silently muttering to herself. Jiraiya and Orochimaru just went about their own business but they were no longer as cheerful as before.

Noriko, on the other hand, had practically become lifeless. No longer was she the happy teacher/housewife she once was, the only thing she ever did nowadays was eat, sleep, cook, teach, and constantly cry.

Finally 3 years passed and the war had come to an end. Many ninja had come back changed, some for the better, some for the worse. Hatake Kakashi, now a jounin, was baring a Sharingan in his left eye and had a new lease on life, and Rin just had a new perspective about life in general. However there were some who haven't changed at all, such as Arashi who was just glad to be home after so long. He was quickly met by his wife who only kissed him deeply before clutching at him desperately.

But they couldn't see him, their only child, anywhere among the crowd of ninja that were coming back. They just stood there till late at night, Noriko was crying on her husband's chest while Arashi just stared into the dark night when he saw a small shadow slowly walked towards them. They rushed right over to see Ranma slowly wobble forward, smiling gently as he always did. "Ta-Tadaima," he breathed out just before he collapsed in his mother's arms.

* * *

The following year, many historical events took place, Arashi had been named Yondaime Hokage for his bravery and actions during the war. Orochimaru had sadly been placed in the Bingo-Book as an S-Class missing-nin after **that** incident, and Jiraiya had soon left the village as well to go after him. But, perhaps the biggest news of all was that…… Noriko had given birth to her 2nd child! 

The 8-year old Ranma just stared at his new little brother slightly curious before poking him in the stomach. He grinned at seeing him giggle, and was soon gently poking him repeatedly in the tummy, "Hahahahaha, 'kaa-chan, if you press his belly-button he laughs!" Ranma laughed out, with his mother giggling as well.

"Ranma, where were you these past few days?" Arashi asked his son out of the blue, smiling as he looked at the sight of his perfect family. "Oh that…" Ranma looked slightly annoyed, "…this Iwa-kid challenged me to a fight at the end of the school year because apparently I was taking **his** bread every lunch period even though it was fair game. So he told me to meet him behind the school in the playground, but the jerk never showed up! I waited 3 days for that dummy!" He then scoffed at being played like a fool. _'Lousy bastard…… Hibiki Ryoga, you shall pay for my humiliation!'_

An 8-year old young boy currently in Amegakure no Sato (Hidden Rain Village) sneezed, "Excuse me, could you tell me where Konoha Academy is?" he asked a nearby street vendor. The man just looked at the fanged-boy with an odd expression, "I hate to tell you this kid but you're in Ame, not Konoha," he told the apparently delusional boy.

Ryoga was stunned, he just couldn't believe it. "Uzumaki Ranma, you cowardly cad! You changed the name of an entire village just to try and trick me, so you could run away from our fight!" The furious boy screamed out in fury, then furiously ran off to… umm…. wherever while furiously cursing the infuriating Ranma. Try saying that 10-times fast.

Gee, guess who I brought back………

After the war, both villages decided to patch up their weakened relationship with each other by having exchange-academy students attend one year's worth of school at the other's villages. It had gone off without a hitch, at first it had been rough and awkward being so near former enemies, but everyone had eventually got used to it… under extreme Jounin-supervision, hence why Ranma was there too.

So far everything had been perfect, life was actually going smoothly for Konoha in the longest time but this peace was not to last. Not after that infamous day……

* * *

"We have to hold on till Hokage-sama arrives!" A nameless shinobi yelled out. 

"Dammit, we don't have time for 'tou-san to come!" The 8-year old ninja shouted as he prepared to fire yet another jutsu at this abomination. "Raiton: Raikurai no Jutsu (Lightning Type: Lightning Bolt Technique)!" Smacking both hands together in front of him, he fired off a bolt of lightning hitting the Kyuubi right in the side of his head.

But the only thing it did was shake its head in irritation before angrily turning to him. "Oh shit…!" Ranma cried out before he and several others were hit by a strong blast of wind from its mouth. "Gah!" he yelled out in pain and spit up blood as he slammed right through a brick wall.

Slowly getting up and groaning, Ranma stumbled back out through the hole and look around to see dozens of villagers and ninja on the ground, all of them either severely injured or dead, among them he saw her, Rin. His father's student was just lying on her back with wide, scared eyes and pale beyond belief, she was clearly dead. Slightly shaking in fear, he heard a strong voice cry out, "RAIKIRI!" he turned his head to see a bloodied Kakashi quickly dash forward with his charged hand and jump up to the monster's head before ramming his fist right between it's eyes.

"RAAAHHHHH!" The monster cried out in pain, before quickly shaking the 14-year old jounin off, sending him helplessly towards the ground. Ranma tried to help him, but found that his legs wouldn't move, _'Oh god, please not now... move you damn legs…'_ he thought in horror as the monster turned to him piercing his very soul with those horrible eyes. "Damn you, you freakin' legs! MOVE!" he screamed out desperately as the beast turned to swipe one of his giant tails at him.

However that tail was abruptly sliced off causing the Kyuubi to roar in anguish. "Wha…?" Ranma whispered in shock and relief. "Are you alright, my precious baby?" He turned his head to see his mother, with her sword in hand, cradling him in her arms. He was now crying his eyes out, "Kaa-chan!" he yelled out as he sobbed in his mother's arms.

"Shhh… hush now, big boys don't cry right?" Noriko said while tightly hugging and kissing her son. "Oh my god!" they heard someone yell out, both of them then looked up to see a truly frightening sight.

The Kyuubi was currently… regenerating it's cut-off tail back. "Impossible…" Ranma heard his other mother whisper in shock. Then it blasted off fire in a random direction of Konoha, and he heard her yell out in horror, "Oh god, the school, the children!" She quickly scooped up her son in her arms, and ran towards the school.

Sighing in relief seeing as it was still intact and was emptied, she was about to leave when she heard some voices inside. "Somebody help us!", "Mommy!" She quickly put her son down and ran inside, and after a minute came out holding two badly-shaken kids. She put them down and they quickly ran off for safety, but as soon as she was about to walk away, the school behind her instantly blew up.

"Kaa-chan!" Ranma screamed out in horror as he watched his mother get crushed by tons of rock. Forcing himself to move, he quickly got up and started tossing chunks of rocks away. "Oh god, 'kaa-chan, answer me! 'Kaa-chan!" he then heard a small whimper, "Ra-Ranma…" quickly he turned towards that direction and was digging like crazy.

"Just hold on, 'kaa-chan. I'm almost there!" Ranma yelled out desperately, he soon reached his mother and dug her out. He looked at her in disbelief, her beautiful body was so damaged… one of her legs had a huge gash across it, her face and body were bloody and badly bruised, and her right arm was broken. "Oh god, don't worry mama I'll heal you! Just hold on!" He tried to use medical jutsus on her wounds, but they were just too much.

"Oh…Ra…Ra-Ranma… I-I…Lo-Love… You…" She whispered as her body grew weaker. Just clutching her body in horror he started crying hysterically, "Kaa-chan, I love you too! Please don't leave me! Don't go! 'kaa-chan…'kaa-chan……'KAA-CHAN!'

Several minutes he was still holding her limp body, then he gently put her body down and turned to the Kyuubi. "This is all your fault, you damn monster…!" he mumbled out in anger, "you bastard… I'm… I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Just then he formed a blue-colored sphere of pure chakra in his hand, and quickly ran towards the Kyuubi. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was a giant red tail coming at him.

'_O…'_

The last thing he felt was his body hitting the cold hard ground.

'_Kaa-……'_

The last thing he heard… was the people of Konoha… screaming in terror.

'_Chan………'_

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Author's Comments (R&R)

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

I know I was being very vague in this chapter, leaving out important details and such. However fear not, for I plan to make a side-story telling all about Ranma's life down to the smallest detail! His training sessions, his time in the war, the 9-month period of Noriko's pregnancy, an event involving Orochimaru and Ranma, and so much more! But don't expect this to come out until months later, college is gonna start again for me soon and I'm gonna be busy.

For those of you who are curious, Noriko's strength is about 0.5 stronger than an adult Kakashi with his Sharingan out… yes, she is just that strong. I mean, she cut off a freakin tail of the Kyuubi in the blink of an eye! Don't expect Kakashi to be able to do something like that, at least not in my story.

Also, Ranma is not as strong as the Legendary Three, he just managed to catch them off guard during training because they didn't expect a three-year old to be able to use such powerful jutsus with such ease and control. When he became a jounin at four, he just barely latest those five-minutes against his father and even afterwards he was unconscious for 1 and 1/2 weeks. I'm not going to make Ranma so ridiculously strong that he trumps everyone in the series, I hate doing that unless I have to or unless it's DBZ…… which I'll be making a story about too.

In any case, that final jutsu Ranma was going to use against the Kyuubi was indeed Rasengan, congratulations to those of you who recognized it. Oh, and my recommendation is that you try to read in between the lines in the last scene… you'll notice something very crucial, which will surface early in the next chapter.

To the confused, -chama is a combination of –chan and –sama, I read this in the Hana Yori Dango manga which my friend made me read and I ended up liking it a lot. I figured this would be the perfect title for Ranma to call his 2nd most favorite person in the world. If you read this story completely then you'll have seen a hint of the pairings that will arise throughout this story. Man, I had forgotten how good Tsunade looked in the manga……

Also, as I promised before I am going to bring Ranma characters into this story the most logical way possible. I really enjoyed writing Ryoga back since it was funny as hell, despite me not liking the pig-boy. Sorry but I think too many Ryoga-hate stories corrupted me but don't worry I won't blatantly bash him though, but I'm going to make plenty of jokes at his expense. For those of you who asked, Ranma will not be getting his past memories back, he'll get flashes of deja-vu during his confrontations with the Ranma crew but nothing else.

Ranma's growth:

Year 1: He learned how to walk then run shortly after.

Year 2: He learned to talk, and soon developed a vast vocabulary comparable to an adult's.

Year 3: He developed his chakra and started to train as a ninja. During this year he learned over 270 jutsus, acquired 3 summonings, and began training in the sword (it'll be much later that he masters it).

Year 4: He officially became a Jounin for Konoha.

Years 5-7: He went off to fight in the war against Iwa.

Year 8: He became a big brother and fought against the Kyuubi……


	4. The Aftermath

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 4 – The Aftermath **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Uzumaki Noriko, and she does belong to me. Maybe I should copyright this character, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** The Aftermath of the horrible tragedy and finally Naruto's here in the story too!

* * *

"characters talking"

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

Waking up Ranma looked around to see white, realizing that he was still alive and in a hospital, he then remembered what happened to the village. _'Oh god… that damn monster,'_ He thought while clutching his head at the horrible memories. _'Kaa-chan…'_ he started to cry at the thought of what happened to his beloved mother.

Knock, Knock

When the knocker didn't receive a response, he just let himself in. "How are you feeling, Ranma?" Sandaime Hokage asked with concern. Seeing as the boy was still crying, Sarutobi just sat on his bed next to him and held his shoulders while the child cried into his chest.

"Kaa-chan, 'kaa-chan was…!" Ranma screamed out incoherently as he tightly held the old man. In the next instant, Ranma found himself being led down the hallways of the hospital, he didn't even care where he was being taken, the person he cared about the most was gone……

However what he saw next greatly shocked him and gave him reason to live again. "Ka…'kaa-chan!" He didn't understand it, he watched her die, he felt her final breath leave her body, yet here she was lying on the bed with a respiration machine hooked up to her. "How…?" Ranma whispered in wonderment.

"I'm not sure myself…" Sarutobi admitted, equally as stumped. "However our medical teams found her body near the school and was about to mark her down as deceased when they notice that she was still breathing faintly."

He sighed in relief that his mother was safe and sound, maybe not 100-percent but at least she was still alive. Then he open his eyes in shocked realization and quickly faced the old man, "What about 'tou-san! Where is he right now!" He was so crushed by his mother's apparent death last night that he completely forgot about his father. "Do you know where he is? I want to tell him that 'kaa-chan's alright since he always gets worried about her if she's even hurt in the slightest," he chuckled at the memory of his father going to 10 different stores to get medic supplies that one time just because his mother got a small paper-cut.

Sarutobi just bowed his head and was grimly silent, seeing this Ranma became apprehensive. "Tou-san… where is he?" he whispered, seeing that the old man still wasn't answering him, he just grabbed him by the shoulders and roughly shook him. "Where! Where is he!" He yelled out.

* * *

Later at the Memorial Stone for the fallen heroes of Konoha, Ranma just looked at his father's name in shock. "No…" Chuckling a little "…it's impossible, that man can't be dead, he just can't be! There's no way!" The young boy was now laughing hysterically unable to believe that his father was really gone. "There's just no way that he can be dead!" he cried out loud as he hugged the stone in desperation.

In an attempt to comfort the boy, Sarutobi went over to hug him but he was pushed away. "No! Don't touch me, just leave me alone!" Ranma screamed as he jumped away towards the horizon.

Sighing tiredly, Sarutobi just looked at the names on the Memorial Stone with great sorrow. Then he put his hands together and silently prayed for their safe passage into Heaven……

Breathing heavily, Ranma just stopped in the forest and leaned against a tree before slowly sitting down onto the dirt. _'It can't be, how could 'tou-san possibly have been…?'_ he miserably thought to himself, as he started to cry once more.

After a few minutes he heard footsteps come towards him and looked up to see a badly injured Kakashi slowly walk towards him. "What do you want, Kakashi-sempai?" Ranma asked after a few seconds of silent starring. "Hmph, what happened to Half-Face?" Kakashi wondered, really not caring about his forgotten title.

The only response that he got was a dirt clod thrown at his face which he easily dodged, then just looked at the boy with a curious eye. "I'm not in the damn mood…" Ranma growled out obviously angry and irritated, "Can't you be more serious in this situation! So many people died during that battle, including 'tou…!" He found that he couldn't bare to finish that sentence, because if he did then that would mean his father was really gone, and he was never coming back.

Seeing that the boy was still in shock and denial, Kakashi just turned around to leave but not before telling him something very important. "Oh, by the way the council is trying to decide what to do with your little brother and Kyuubi……" Hearing this immediately made Ranma freeze up, he felt goosebumps on his skin, his body getting colder, his breathing getting shallower, and then he just looked up at the older boy in shock. "What did you say……!" he whispered.

Kakashi had a tiny feeling that he should have just kept his mouth shut. "Urk…" That feeling grew to epic proportions when he felt Ranma's small hand lift him up by his throat, slowly depriving him of precious oxygen. "Tell me everything you know, Half-Face… and don't leave out any details either or else," Ranma threatened as he gathered chakra to his eyes, making his eyes glow a very dark-red.

* * *

In the Hokage's Tower, there was a heated discussion between the council as to what they should do with the Kyuubi… or rather the Kyuubi's small vessel, Uzumaki Naruto, who was currently sleeping in a carriage nearby.

Mitokado Homura, Sarutobi's male teammate from his genin days, made his feelings known right off the bat. "The people are afraid Sarutobi, they think of the baby as the Kyuubi itself. They've even forgotten that this boy is the son of their savior." Homura said in exasperation, "What choice do we have but to abandon him, even if he is still an infant."

Utatane Koharu, Sarutobi's female teammate, quickly cut the Hokage off as he was about to speak. "We know, Sarutobi, we know. What of the mother's feelings about this situation?" She asked, obviously this has been on her mind for quite a while as well. "Seeing as the mother is currently incapacitated, we must make this decision without her consent. If we delay this any further than the people might act out on their fears, and endanger the baby's life."

The Sandaime Hokage, who was once again forced to take over the position, could only deeply sigh in sadness. He just couldn't believe this was happening, he didn't want to think that the villagers of Konoha would be so heartless as to kill a defenseless little baby. At this rate, one man's brave sacrifice would slowly become two sacrifices.

Just before Sarutobi could say anything, the twin-doors to the chamber exploded open and through the debris slowly walked in Uzumaki Ranma dragging along the bodies of two stupid ANBU who got in his way. Kakashi was seen walking behind him, following his fellow Jounin who was currently ready to kill.

Ranma let go of the unconscious men, and without even glancing at the three figures at the table, just walked up and stared at his little brother who currently had several complex seals put on his stomach. _'So it's true… 'tou-san sacrificed himself to use **that** Kinjutsu and sealed the Kyuubi in Naru-chan,'_ Ranma silently thought to himself, as he was putting together all the pieces to this puzzle.

While Ranma was preoccupied with the baby, Sarutobi just turned to face Kakashi, "Why didn't you stop him?" He quietly whispered to the young ninja, who just shrugged and looked as nonchalant as usual, "I tried to, but he just beat me up and forced me to come along." Apparently Kakashi didn't really care if people knew that he got beaten up by an 8-year old, plus it really would explain that bruise around his uncovered eye.

Before Sandaime could say anything else, he was cut off by a seething Ranma. "Oi, 'jii-chan. Just what were you planning on doing with my cute little brother?" Ranma muttered out through his gritted teeth, "Don't tell me that you were about to hurt him……"

Aware of the underlining threat in his words, Sarutobi quickly worked to defuse the situation. "Ranma, we were just talking about what to do with Naruto. However, hurting or abandoning the baby was never an option in this situation not matter what," he could only hope that the truth would calm the boy down.

However the truth wasn't enough for him, since Ranma just balled his hand into a fist and narrowed his eyes. "Oh… maybe for you, but what about Homura-sama and Koharu-sama? What were your thoughts on my brother's fate? Please make sure that you answer in a way that'll make me happy…… you wouldn't want to see me get angry." Ranma was still mourning his father's death and seeing these idiots insult the final gift that Arashi had left to Konoha was making his blood boil.

Seeing as everyone in the room had gone dead silent, Ranma grew even angrier and his vision was further clouded in red.

"You ungrateful bastards…!" Ranma finally growled out, rolling up his sleeves as he stomped over to the old geezers. "…I think it's about time someone taught you a lesson in being humble!" Just as he was about to close in on them, a gentle voice cut through his anger and forced him to stop.

"Ranma-chan… stop…" the voice was soft and hoarse, but he heard it as clear as day. Turning around Ranma was faced with his mother who was leaning on the doorway still too hurt to stand under her own power.

"Kaa-chan! You should be resting now!" Ranma yelled out in panic before rushing to his mother's side and picking her up. It certainly was odd seeing a small 8-year old boy holding a grown woman in his arms, but nobody questioned it for fear of incurring Ranma's wrath.

"Oh, don't worry so much. Your 'kaa-chan isn't so weak…" She managed to get out before coughing, she seemed like she had more to say but couldn't find the strength to do so. Seeing her lift her arms and hold them towards Naruto, Ranma got the message, she wanted to hold her baby.

"Jii-chan, could you please bring Naruto over here. My hands are sorta full," Ranma politely asked. Sarutobi then gently picked the baby up, who was still asleep, and carefully placed him in Noriko's still trembling hands.

Seeing how his mother fell asleep while gently but firmly holding Naruto to her chest. He turned around to walk out, but not before saying something that he had to get off his chest……

"Jii-chan… no, Hokage-sama I apologize for my behavior just now, I had no right to…" However Sarutobi just quickly cut in, "Do not worry yourself about this Ranma, it's understandable that you'd be more than a little angry. Just take your mother and brother home now, they deserve rest as do you." Ranma just nodded, he would have bowed but couldn't, "Arigato gozaimasu (Thank you very much)…" and then he walked out.

"Sarutobi, are you sure that this is a wise decision to make," Homura quickly said as soon as Ranma left. "You know as well I do that despite his parentage, young Naruto will still be hated by everyone in Konoha. It'll only be a matter of time before either they or he snaps."

Sarutobi just looked at the spot where Ranma stood and smiled kindly, "No need to worry about that Homura. I'm sure Naruto will get all the love he needs from his mother and brother, and of course eventually the villagers will come to see the boy as the hero he truly is. Everything just takes time, after all even Konoha wasn't built in a day."

* * *

After tucking his mother in her bed, Ranma slowly made his way to the nursery. _'Naruto…'_ he sadly thought, then images of the Kyuubi flashed before his eyes before he quickly directed his anger towards the small baby in the crib. He tried… he tried so hard to stay mad but couldn't find the strength to do so, not while he was starring at the cute form of his little brother.

"No matter what… you will forever be Uzumaki Naruto…" Ranma softly said while slowing patting the head of his little brother, "… no matter what happens, you will always be my brother. Even if you have that **thing** trapped in your body, you will never be the Kyuubi."

'_That's right, he'll never be the Kyuubi… NEVER! I'm make sure of it,'_ Ranma determinedly thought as he slowly drifted to sleep at the bottom of his brother's crib, with tears slowly making their way down his cheeks.

Behind the slightly opened door, Noriko smiled sadly at her eldest's declarations. She slowly limped down towards the kitchen, wondering what she deserved to receive such a beautiful child like Ranma. However, sitting in the empty kitchen made her realize that she was technicality alone now… her husband, the man she loved, was gone forever.

Noriko just buried her face in her hands and cried profusely, mumbling why, why did this have to happen to her family! Her husband had sacrificed himself for an ungrateful village, her youngest child was cursed to house a demon in him for the rest of his life, and her eldest son was currently trying his hardest to keep his sanity.

All she ever wanted was a happy family, a family that didn't have to worry about the hardships of a ninja-life. That dream was all but impossible now…… no… no, it was still there but it would be much harder to achieve now. Standing up, she furiously wipe her tears away with her sleeve. She had to be strong, after all Arashi would want her to be strong if not for herself then for their children, especially since she was all that they had left in this world.

That's right, no matter what she would protect their children for all eternity. They were the last precious gifts that her husband had left her, and she would treasure them forever.

'_Anata… please give me strength, I don't think I can do this by myself.'

* * *

_

The next few years were very hard for the Uzumaki Clan, both Noriko and Ranma had to deal with those cold stares and harsh glares every time they went outside with Naruto. They were forced to ignore the whispers of angers, while trying their hardest not to lash out at the villagers.

However through it all, neither mother or brother treated the little baby with any hostility. It hasn't his fault that he was forced to bear such a great burden on his shoulders at such a young age. So as the years passed by, Naruto grew up oblivious to the cold looks and murmurs of hate, since his family showered him with enough love to fill up Konoha.

Eventually the villagers came around to accepting the Kyuubi-vessel, after all who could really hate such a sweet little face like Naruto's. Oh, not to mention the fact that Ranma decided to always carry his Katana around with him now, and just politely smiled and fingered the hilt every time Naruto went into a store or talked to an adult. The villagers all knew that Ranma was quick to act and got his temper from his mother and Tsunade, so they decided not to get on his bad side. However, those who didn't know of Ranma's reputation quickly found out the hard way……

All this special treatment didn't mean that Naruto grew up spoiled or sheltered, far from it in fact. The moment Naruto became 4, Ranma decided to make sure that his little brother became a strong ninja just like his father would have wanted. Of course his mother was against this decision right from the beginning and objected immediately.

"Ranma-chan, don't you think that Naruto is too young for training right now?" His mother asked as she was sitting on the ground, playing with her child. "He can barely even run straight without falling down." She watched as he demonstrated that ability, catching him before he hit the ground.

Looking at his mother exasperated, "Oh, 'kaa-chan…" The 12-year old boy whined, _'geez, she's so overprotective,'_ He grumpily thought.

"I learned to become a ninja a year before him, and at his age I was already a jounin!" He boasted arrogantly, and got into a pose to show how awesome he was.

Noriko just rolled her eyes at hearing her son brag, "Yes, yes, we all know how strong and cool you are…" she sighed out, but then smirked. "But you'll always be my cute little Ranma-chan, my precious little baby!" She loudly exclaimed, before jumping up and tightly hugging Ranma.

"Ah, 'kaa-chan, I'm not a baby anymore!" Ranma yelled out indignantly, but hugged his mother back anyway. Hey, he may not have been a baby, but he was still a mama's boy.

After a few more seconds of this touching mother-son moment, Noriko let go and looked her son straight in his eyes. "Alright, since you're not a baby anymore I'll give you the responsibility of training your brother," Noriko said. "However you can only train him under my supervision, but don't expect me to help out. I already got my hands full training you and dealing with the students at the academy."

Ranma just nodded, he understood that his mother had chosen him as her successor so she didn't want anyone else to learn her techniques not even her second child. Her sword techniques could be considered an advanced-bloodline too since not even the Sharingan seemed to be able to copy them. This was proven when some greedy Uchihas tried to steal her techniques, and regretted doing so when she demonstrated her powers on them.

He watched as she walked away and picked up Naruto before heading into the kitchen. As she left he couldn't help but stare at the large scar on her left leg, that scar was her ever-lasting reminder of that horrible day. When he questioned his mother on how she survived that attack despite her body being so damaged.

She just told him that before the rocks crushed her, she quickly collected chakra throughout her entire body and used a medic-jutsu to begin healing almost immediately. The only reason her body was still hurt was because the damage accumulated must have been too much, and it was taking time for her body to heal them all. Plus since she was forced to heal her entire body all at once, her chakra depleted quicker than she expected which is why she fainted from exhaustion, making it seem like she died.

He always knew that his mother was cool, but after hearing that she was practically invincible, he officially dubbed her the 'coolest mama in the whole wide world!' which always got her giggling at her son's cuteness. It seemed that no matter what horrible deed took place, Ranma was always able to get through it with a smile on his face.

The next day, Ranma and Noriko took Naruto over to the forest to train. Before that though, they stopped by the village to pick up some supplies. "Ano, what's this?" Naruto curiously asked the nice produce lady, she just smiled and said "That's a pineapple." She then giggled as he started to compare his hair style to the fruit.

All throughout the supermarket Naruto was running around like the hyperactive child he was, asking people various questions. "What's that smell?", "What's wrong with that meat, it's green!", "Ewww, fishies, why are they so big and ugly?", "Could you get me the Double-Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, please mister!" Unfortunately his mother had put the cereal back in its place, arguing that he had more than enough sugar in his little body.

Soon after they left the supermarket and walked towards the forest, all the awhile Ranma still couldn't believe the changes within the villagers of Konoha. In the beginning, they all resented and treated Naruto with hostility and fear, but now it seemed like they all saw him for what he really was… a mere child, and not just any child but the son of their savior himself. They decided that it would be an insult to treat the boy who had the blood of Yondaime coursing through his body with hatred, and just treated the child as they would any other child.

Of course there were still some people who resented the boy, but they were all afraid of saying anything in front of his mother and brother. They may have been hateful and spiteful, but they weren't stupid or suicidal. Insulting the young blond within hearing distance of Noriko or Ranma was as dumb as spitting in the face of Death itself, YOU JUST DON'T DO IT!

A few minutes later, Noriko was sitting on a tree stump in the forest, with the groceries next to her, just watching as Ranma taught Naruto the fundamental basics of chakra control.

"Now Naru-chan, you have to remember that the first step to becoming a great ninja is chakra control," Ranma lectured his little brother, who was sitting down in front of him shaking with excitement. "Chakra is the energy a shinobi needs to essentially be a shinobi. It's made of two different types of energies which are combined together; the body energy that's naturally in every single cell of your body, and the spiritual energy which you get and increase through training and experience. However, you must remember that every living creature has chakra, it's just that those who never trained in chakra exercises are usually weak and their spirit is just too small."

Ranma then made his way to a tree, "By gathering the chakra within your body and releasing it, you'll be able to perform different types of skills and jutsus which I will now demonstrate……" He then started to walk up the tree until he was standing upside-down on one of the branches, he looked down to see his mother proudly smiling at him while his brother was just gaping in shock.

"Nani? How'd you do that, 'nii-chan!" Naruto yelled out as he jumped up to his feet and grinned like a fox. Seeing his little brother's exuberance, he just smirked then jumped back down to the ground and landed on his feet. Ranma just knelt down in front of him, rubbing the top of his head, "It's quite simple actually, but before that let's work on gathering your chakra first, the only reason I showed you 'Tree Climbing' right now was to get you excited about these lessons."

Deciding that she had seen enough even though it was only a minute, Noriko stood up and brushed her dress down. "Well it seems that you're a better teacher than I expected Ranma-chan. The best way to teach after all is to properly motivate your students and it seems you've done just that," she walked over to hug and kiss her sons, then picked up the groceries. "Seeing as how my presence is no longer needed right now, I'm going to go home and prepare dinner. So make sure that you're not late, got me?"

Ranma just nodded, "Hai, hai, I'll make sure to get him home on time." She took one final look at her sons before leaving.

"Well…" Ranma started to say after his mother left, "… let's get started." Even after three hours of training, Naruto still wasn't close to gathering his chakra. "Hmmm… maybe you are too young for ninja-training just yet, Naru-chan." Ranma finally said, looking at his exhausted brother lying on the ground, panting and swimming in his own sweat.

Naruto was about to open his mouth to protest before a loud mysterious voice cut him off. "It seems that you're having problems, my little chickadee!" The **voice** shouted. Ranma smiled as he recognized that voice and looked around the forest, "It can't be……" he whispered in shock.

Naruto was wondering why Ranma was smiling like that, when he quickly found his vision to be clouded in thick smoke, so he started to stumble around blindly, waving his little arms in hopes of finding his brother. When he bumped into something soft he immediately latched onto it, thinking that it was his 'nii-chan. However when the smoke cleared he was surprised to see that he was holding onto the leg of a big, white-haired man who was wearing the weirdest clothes he's ever seen.

Jiraiya just grinned at the boy holding his leg, before roughly shaking the little tyke off sending him flying into the air. Ranma just sighed at seeing his brother trying to emulate a bird and quickly jumped up to catch him. Making sure that the kid was securely held in his arms, he turned to his childhood mentor, one of many, and ran towards him.

"Jiraiya-sama!" Ranma yelled out as he jumped up and hugged the larger man in excitement. Finally letting go after a few seconds, "It's been so long Jiraiya-sama, what have you been doing all these years?" Ranma curiously asked, but he had a hunch as to what the man has been up to.

Jiraiya just blushed, grinned and giggled perversely. _'Yup, I thought as much. He hasn't changed one bit over the years,'_ Ranma thought in amusement.

Jiraiya then became serious and looked at the small boy in his kouhai's arms in curiosity. "Who's the kid, Ranma? Don't tell me you've become a glorified babysitter for little brats!" Jiraiya screamed out in horror. The only response he got was a sharp pain in his right leg, looking down he saw that the boy was kicking him in the shin! Why that little brat!

Before he could teach the impudent whelp a lesson in respect, Jiraiya was held back by Ranma. "Ora, ora, calm down Jiraiya-sama…" he told the older man before picking Naruto up, "… this particular brat happens to be my younger brother." Jiraiya just said 'ooh' before looking over the boy with a speculating gleam in his eyes.

"Hmmm… so Noriko had another child. He looks pretty weak though, not too mention chubby," Jiraiya finally stated after a minute of examination. In that next moment Ranma was chuckling while holding up his little brother to keep him from charging the frog-hermit, "I'm not weak or fat, you ugly, stupid, smelly, ummm… Ero-sennin!" Naruto yelled out in anger.

Ranma slapped his free hand over his mouth to keep from laughing outloud once more. _'Ero-sennin… that's a good name for you, Jiraiya-sama,'_ He silently mused.

Jiraiya just turned red from embarrassment and anger, "Oi, you damn gaki (brat) don't call me that! What makes you think that I'm a pervert anyway!" yelled the ticked off frog-sannin. Naruto wriggled himself out of his brother's grip, then ran behind Jiraiya and grabbed something out of his back pocket. "This is why, you Ero-sennin!" he yelled while holding up a pair of women's panties.

Sighing in disgust, Ranma eyed the underwear distastefully before turning his attention over to the red-faced man. "Honestly Jiraiya-sama, you're stealing underwear now?" he moan out. Jiraiya just quickly grabbed the panties and shoved them back in his pockets before chuckling awkwardly, _'Hopefully the boy didn't notice,'_ he nervously thought as he slowly stepped away.

Unfortunately for him, Ranma did notice. There was something familiar about that underwear, he's seen it somewhere before, but where…… hey, wait a second! He saw an identical pair doing his mother's laundry, _'Kaa-chan was asking if I dropped any clothes last time I did laundry too…'_ he remembered her telling him that she was missing a few pieces of clothing. Ranma then shuddered in realization, and slowly turned his head to glare at a now frozen Jiraiya.

Cracking his knuckles, Ranma stomped over to a very-nervous and shaking 'Ero-sennin.' He saw in the corner of his eye, Naruto getting comfortable in the best seats of the house before directing his full wrath towards the soon-to-be-dead frog-hermit……

Sorry folks, but this next part is censored besides you really wouldn't want to know happened 'cause it's too disgusting and sick, that and I don't feel like writing it.

……After Ranma was done, Jiraiya's once 'manly' body was twisted in so many ways that he resemble a giant pretzel with quadruple-knots. Not to mention, he had several shuriken imbedded throughout his body, making it look like salt.

Wow, if anyone could think up unique ways of torture, it was definitely Uzumaki Ranma. After all, being a ninja who doesn't kill had left him at a great disadvantage during the war, so he had to offset that imbalance by using his childish imagination to improve his torture methods. _'I call this one, freshly-made double-salted pretzel man…'_ he proudly thought, before wearily eyeing Jiraiya's bag.

Ranma slightly opened it up and took a peek, before quickly closing it and turning green. _'Ewww, my kaa-chan's underwear! That sick bastard… ugh yuck, I can't touch this stuff, my hands will probably melt off,'_ he irritably thought, but then he noticed Naruto poking the misshapen Jiraiya with a stick.

A light-bulb went off over Ranma's head, and he called for his little brother, "Naruto let me tell you this, a ninja must not only have perfect chakra control, but they must also be physically strong and fast as well." Seeing Naruto nod, he smiled and continued, "So the best method of getting stronger and faster is lifting heavy stuff and running. Now I want you to pick up that bag over there and run back home carrying it, then give it to 'kaa-chan, okay?" Naruto just nodded again and did as his 'nii-chan told him.

Ah, gullible little brothers rocked! Well it's not like he was technically lying though……

As soon as Ranma could no longer see Naruto, he sat down on the ground and turned his attention back to Jiraiya. "Jiraiya-sama, you're just lucky that 'kaa-chan left before you arrived or else you'd be missing a few key items of your own," Ranma warned as he sat down next to an un-twisted Jiraiya, who got himself loose as the brothers were talking.

After cracking a few kinks out of his shoulders and neck, and plucking the last shuriken out, Jiraiya just laid down next to Ranma. "Well I always did have luck with the ladies…" he purposely ignored the grumbles of 'whatever' and 'yeah, right' he heard from his student.

"What were you two doing here anyway, you usually like to train with stronger people don't you?" Jiraiya curiously asked before yawning. "Oh this, I was just teaching Naruto how to gather up and use his chakra." At seeing Jiraiya raise his eyebrow, Ranma just sighed, "I know, I know, he's still too young but Naruto has to learn how to use his chakra as soon as possible."

After a few moments of silence, he turned to look at Jiraiya. "Jiraiya-sama… you heard about what happened to 'tou-san 4 years ago, right?" Ranma quietly asked, then he heard a long depressed sigh, "Yeah, I heard about Arashi. In the end he went out like a real man though, protecting his family and home right till the bitter end. But I also heard that he used some kind of strange jutsu to seal the Kyuubi away within a baby." Without moving, Jiraiya just looked at Ranma through the corner of his eyes, "Is that why you want your brother to learn chakra control so early because of the Kyuubi?"

Ranma just smiled,_ 'So he knew that Naruto was the Kyuubi-container all along. I should have known better, can't get anything past him,'_ he thought to himself before replying. "Yes and no, I do want him to learn how to develop his chakra right away so that he'll have more experience and better knowledge when it comes time to use the Kyuubi's chakra. But……" He drifted off, before looking up at the sky and sighing.

"But?" Jiraiya was curious as to what the boy had come up with. Ranma always was a sharp one, and his theories were usually right on the dot.

"But… I believe that 'tou-san saw something special in Naruto, why else would he have left in a mere baby such a dark legacy," Ranma stated while looking Jiraiya right in the eye. Before he could respond, the sannin found himself flat on his face thanks to a roll-up baking pin to the back of the head. _'What the hell!'_ Ranma thought in shock before he saw his mother run straight towards Jiraiya with kitchen knives in her hands.

"You perverted old-prick! I'm gonna cut your balls off and shove them your throat, then I'm gonna rip your eyes out and shove them up your ass so you can watch me kick it from here to Suna!" Noriko yelled out as she beat the frog-hermit to a bloody stump. Ranma could hear Jiraiya scream and beg for mercy, at least that what's he thought the old man was yelling, he couldn't really decipher it through all the blood that was being spit up.

After a few more minutes, Ranma checked his watch and decided that his mother had more than enough 'fun.' He slowly got up, checked his clothing for any dirt, looked at his watch again, picked at a small piece of lint on his shirt, wiped the bottom of his sandal off a rock, took the time to breath in the fresh country air, checked his watch once more (well he is a torture-expert after all), **then** he went over to stop his mother. Picking her up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, he wished he brought ear-plugs so he could block out all the profanity his mother was spewing at the pile of minced and bloodied meat that was once Jiraiya.

Looking back over his free shoulder, he sighed out in frustration. He was going to ask Jiraiya-sama to help Naruto learn how to gather his chakra but it looked like he was going to be in traction for a few months. Geez, he didn't know whether to thank or curse Tsunade-chama for passing down to his mother everything she knew, including her pervert-beating ways and that scary temper.

Hmmm… he wondered if Hokage-jiichan was free.

* * *

Dragging his feet, Ranma slowly walked out of the Hokage's Tower slightly depressed. He just couldn't believe how much being Hokage sucked! He shuddered recalling what he just saw, the moment he walked into the Hokage's chambers he saw that his 'jii-chan was literally surrounded by mountains of paperwork. _'Poor Jiji, he shouldn't be doing all that paperwork in his old age,'_ he thought in pity.

Walking up to Naruto who was just starring at the Hokage Tower with stars in his eyes, he sighed deeply. Even after seeing how hard being Hokage was, his little brother was still just as determined to become one.

Sighing once more, he held Naruto's hand as they walked away. "Why do you want to become Hokage again, Naru-chan?" Ranma asked. The little blond boy just looked up at him with a big grin on his face, "Because I want to earn the respect of the people and have them look up to me!" He smiled proudly at his younger brother that is before he continued talking, "… that, and I want my picture on that big mountain! That way everyone will be able to look at my cute face everyday!" Ranma just immediately facefaulted.

Spitting grass out of his mouth, Ranma just stared at the smaller boy with a look of disbelief. Oh brother…… while he may have gotten his personality from their mother, Naruto definitely got his from their father. He just smiled at that thought before patting the top of his head which earned him a yelp from his younger brother for messing up his hairdo.

A short while after, Naruto just curiously looked at his brother, "Why did we come here to see Hokage-jiichan anyway, 'nii-chan?" Ranma just sighed, "Oh, I just wanted to ask Jiji to help you with your chakra gathering problem, especially since Jiraiya-sama is sorta incapacitated right now," he then smirked evilly as he remembered what his mother did to the frog-sannin the previous day. _'He deserved it too, that mommy-undy stealing pervert……'_

"Hmmm… oh well, let's go get something to eat Naru-chan." Ranma said as he picked up his brother, "Where do you want go?" He didn't even know why he bothered to ask, especially since it was always the same answer.

"ICHIRAKU RAMEN!" Naruto exuberantly yelled out.

'_Geez, if 'kaa-chan didn't force Naru-chan to eat fruit and vegetables, I'm pretty sure he would be dead by now. I mean, nobody can live off ramen alone,'_ Despite these thoughts, Ranma was sure if his brother could he would definitely eat only those noodles 24/7. Even to this day he was still stumped at how such a tiny body could eat so much, hell the kid could eat up to 20 large bowls of ramen and still crave for more.

He once told his mother about a theory of his, that Naruto had a portable black hole in his stomach and all that ramen just went straight to his head, thereby making him addicted and constantly craving more. His mother just giggled and told him it couldn't have been that bad, however she soon agreed with him after just one trip to Ichiraku's.

Later at the restaurant, he could only look helplessly as the contents of his cute horsey wallet became smaller and smaller as his little brother continued to eat bowl after bowl. Ranma then turned to see the cute girl working behind the counter starring at him… yet again.

Looking into the reflection of his soup, he couldn't see anything on his face, _'Oh wait there is something there… no wait, that's just part of the ramen.'_ He just couldn't understand it, why was this girl always starring at him! He didn't even know her name because every time he asked for it, she just always turned red and fainted. He couldn't even ask her father again because Teuchi was afraid that if Ranma ever called her by her first name, she might just die from a heart-attack.

Realizing that he wasn't feeling that hungry anymore, Ranma just wordlessly passed the rest of his noodles to his brother who gobbled it up in mere seconds. Seeing that Naruto had finally finished eating after only 10 bowls, guess the kid wasn't that hungry, he asked for the rest of the bill and saw the nameless counter-girl bring it over. When he accidentally made skin contact with her hand and he was surprised to see her shriek and jump backwards, fall on her butt, then quickly run to the kitchen crying and screaming.

'_What the heck is wrong with her! It's not like that I have cooties or something… I can't be that ugly right!'_ Ranma thought in horror, _'Oh my god, I might have to start wearing a mask like Half-Face so that I don't end up scaring everyone!'_ He always did love teasing Kakashi because of his mask, and was distraught to realize that he could become just like that mask-wearing, hentai-reading, nasty-on-the-brains pervert.

Naruto was just blinking a lot in curiosity, then looked up to see Teuchi-jiichan just smile nervously at his brother before apologizing for his daughter's behavior. Ranma just smiled back, and replied that it was no big deal, although you could definitely tell that his smile was strained as it was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Teuchi didn't take any offense to that however, he knew exactly what Ranma was thinking since this wasn't the first time Ayame embarrassed herself in front of him. The old man just bowed in apology before turning back to console his daughter.

"Well Naru-chan, let's just go now." Ranma sighed out, he was starting to feel depressed now. After all, it wasn't everyday you found out that you were so hideous that cute girls ran at the very sight of you.

As he was getting up to brush his pants off, he heard two very familiar voices locked in a heated argument…… or rather one voice was loudly proclaiming something, while the other voice just dully replied back. _'Oh man, I don't need this right now…… no wait, they could be of some use to me,'_ Ranma deviously thought.

Ranma then sat back down to wait, while Naruto just looked confused wondering why they weren't going to leave…… maybe they were gonna get more ramen! He perked up at that prospect. A few seconds later he saw two ninjas walked in, at least he thought they were ninjas, after all they were wearing the Jounin-vests that his brother sometimes wore.

The reason Naruto was skeptical was because these two looked like total morons. One of them had silver-hair, half his face was hidden behind a mask, his left eye was covered by his Hitai-ate, and he was reading a familiar-looking book. The other one was much worse, he was wearing an ugly green bodysuit, and he had shiny black hair in a bowlcut style, even shinier teeth, not to mention the thickest eyebrows he's ever seen!

Did he mention that these two looked like complete idiots, cause they did. Despite the fact that they looked really stupid, Naruto knew these two must have been really strong. After all, his brother once told him that the dumber a person looked, the stronger they usually were, and he kept using that Ero-sennin as the perfect example. At that time, Ranma was trying to teach him the all-important lesson of never judging a book by it's cover and to always expect the unexpected, which he still didn't understand.

"Kakashi-sempai, Gai-san!" The boy was brought back to reality when he heard his brother shout.

"Ora, Ranma-kun! What are you doing in this fine establishment on this beautiful day?" The super thick-eyebrows asked.

"Gai, obviously he came here to eat, that's what people usually do in restaurants." The pervert-idiot dully interrupted. Naruto dubbed him a pervert after recognizing that book. It was the same book that he found in Ero-sennin's bag, he just told himself that anything Jiraiya had must automatically be perverted.

"OOOHHH! What a hip new-age response, Kakashi!" The caterpillar-brow guy suddenly yell out loudly causing Naruto to almost jump right out of his skin, "As expected of my eternal rival!"

Ranma just rolled his eyes at hearing the familiar dialogue that's been said about a thousand times before. He quickly interjected before the two got started again, "Oi, oi, can't we just behave like civilized people one day of the year, please? After all, we wouldn't want to influence future generations to become delinquents now do we?" He politely said, while pointing at his little brother who was hiding behind his legs trying to get away from the two freaks.

Ranma then turned around to his cowering brother and picked him up in his arms. He smiled feeling his tiny arms around his neck, Naruto always was shy around new people. "Naru-chan, I want to introduce you to some old friends of mine. This is Kakashi-sempai…" pointing at the pervert-idiot, who just took a glance at him before turning back to his book, "… and Gai-san," pointing to the super thick-eyebrows, who immediately got into some weird poses, while yelling about stuff like him being cool, and hip, and fashionable, and handsome, and how he was destined rivals with the pervert-idiot.

What got the young child even more confused was that while he was ranting, the background behind him suddenly changed to that of a sunset on a beach. Looking up, he was glad to see that he wasn't the only one who noticed, since his brother was palming his face in exasperation when he took a look at the imaginary scenery. The pervert-idiot, on the other hand, just raised an eyebrow before sitting down on one of the beach-chairs to read his book and enjoy the view. What the heck……!

Of course, when the background disappeared, Naruto just saw Kakashi sitting on one of the stools facing the exit. You see, now that made more sense to him……

Tugging at his brother's shirt to get his attention, "Can we go now, these guys are weirdoes," Naruto urgently whispered. However all he received was a small chuckle, before his brother dropped a big bomb on him. "I would love to Naru-chan, but you see these two are now your new teachers in Chakra-training," Ranma said with a mischievous grin.

Naruto looked around to see that he wasn't the only shocked, because in that moment he saw Gai with wide eyes and his jaw on the ground and Kakashi actually looked up from his book to stare at Ranma with a raised eyebrow.

"Ranma-kun, contrary to popular belief, I do have a life and I cannot afford to waste any of my free time teaching," Gai said.

"…… I just don't want to do it," Kakashi blandly told him.

Naruto then felt his brother's body get really cold, and looked up to see him with an emotionless face. "Naru-chan, I'll be right back so don't go too far okay?" Ranma stated as he put him on the ground.

Ranma then walked over and grabbed the two Jounins in headlocks, before angrily whispering to them. Second by second, their bodies could be seen drooping further and further towards the ground, and finally he let them go after a few minutes. Kakashi and Gai then quickly rushed over to Naruto, and the boy could see that they were really pale, and sweating profusely, not to mention they had wide scared eyes. He looked behind them to see his older brother just casually waving to him and smiling.

"Ummm… it is our great honor to be teaching you to learn how to gather chakra, Naruto-kun," Gai nervously stuttered out.

"Uhhh… yeah right, what he said…" Kakashi just mumbled, before a kunai imbedded itself beside his foot. "I mean! Congratulations, we are now officially your teachers! Yay!" he yelled out with more than a hint of fear in his voice.

Then the two felt a hand on their shoulders, before looking next to them to see Ranma with his arms over them, grinning like a cat. "You see, Naru-chan. Now you have two more teachers to help you with your chakra training, isn't this great?" Ranma then lead the two Jounins out the door, "Now come on, let's go tell 'kaa-chan the good news…… won't you join us sempai-tachi?" He politely asked while gripping their shoulders just a bit harder, their only response was to quickly nod.

As Naruto was watching them leave, he scrunched up his face and made a decision, "All grown-ups except for 'kaa-chan are weird…" He quietly said to himself, before running to catch up with his brother and his friends.

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Author's Comments (R&R)

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Sorry, but I loved Noriko too much to just off her plus I think it'll be more interesting this way, seeing as how Naruto now has a mother. I originally had planned to kill off her off in many different ideas but I soon found out that she really grew on me, so I scrapped that idea and went with the next best thing, I am so glad I thought of this at the last second! For those of you confused, Noriko basically did the same thing that Kabuto did when Naruto hit him with Ransengan, only she was forced to heal her entire body.

I'm not going to have Noriko train Naruto in the ways of the sword because I have a different purpose for him. Believe me, I have everything clearly thought up especially the direction I want to take everyone, it's all already planned out.

For those of you who are curious, Ranma threatened Gai with shaving his hair and eyebrows off, and burning all his bodysuits. While Ranma threatened Kakashi with stealing all his Icha-Icha Paradise and porn videos and destroying them one by one in front of him.

To the confused, when Ranma did his mother's laundry he wore one of those radioactive suits so that his hands wouldn't burn from touching his mommy's undies. As to why he remembered what her underwear looks like, let's just say that Noriko having a pair of sexy underwear was forever burned into the back of his brain. After all, any child seeing that their mother wears sexy lingerie would be scarred for life, I know I would be.

Yes, Jiraiya is officially the Happosai of this story. Imagine it, Jiraiya's peeping skills combined with Happosai's underwear stealing skills, feel very sorry for the women of this universe for JIRAIPOSAI has been created!

I hope everyone liked the way I kept Naruto's two favorite passions relatively the same. It was easy finding a different reason as to why Naruto wanted to become Hokage, as for why he loves Ramen as much as he does… well nobody knows that. Although there are some good theories out there, I'm not going to use any of them.

To everyone who's complaining about Ranma being a pacifist ninja, a ninja who doesn't kill, I'm guessing you don't like anime like Rurouni Kenshin (TV), Trigun, or Black Cat. Because all the main characters in these series don't kill either, so I guess that means they're all weaklings or that everyone dies because of this hindrance… oh wait……

To those who think I'm contradicting myself by saying Ranma's a "pacifist" ninja and a torture specialist, the type of torture he does is more mental rather than physical. It's not like he cuts off arms and legs… although I was thinking about doing that, I'm pretty sure that's not something a mother would approve of. I have no idea what kind of techniques torture specialists use, so I'm not going to go into specifics. Besides the Kakashi-special in the manga showed me that there are other alternatives to physical torture like messing up the chakra system or using genjutsu, so just imagine that's what Ranma did. One more example is fear; just imagine that he uses his killing intent to scare the hell out of prisoners to get information and mentally scar them for life. Again, he was partly raised by Orochimaru……


	5. Ranma’s Life, Naruto’s Childhood

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 5 – Ranma's Life, Naruto's Childhood**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Uzumaki Noriko, and Hyuuga Natsumi, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** The title really says it all…… you'll be seeing a lot and I mean a lot of characters from the Naruto series in this chapter.

* * *

"characters talking" 

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

A month later, Naruto was seen in the forest once again training in chakra control… in this case, it was more like chakra gathering since he still couldn't summon his chakra.

Ranma, Kakashi, and Gai were sitting in various places around him, silently watching, trying to figure out what was wrong with the boy. Noriko had decided to trust her oldest son to properly teach his brother and chose not to escort these training trips anymore.

They just couldn't figure it out, even if he was still too young to control his chakra, the kid should still be able to summon some of it. It was as if Naruto didn't have any chakra at all but they all knew that was impossible, because everyone had chakra in their body, it was the source of all life! Even normal people had it, they just didn't know how to use it or most of the time it was just too weak but at least it was still there!

When Kakashi had scanned his body with his Sharingan, he couldn't even see a glimpse of chakra within the boy. By this time, Ranma was getting seriously worried for his little brother, he's never heard of anything like this before. _'No chakra…… that's impossible, maybe the Kyuubi is messing up his inner-coil system or something,'_ Ranma silently contemplated. _'Dammit…'_

"Naru-chan, that's enough for today! It's getting dark, let's go home," Ranma told his little brother who was just knelt on the ground and bursted into tears. _'Oh geez…'_ He thought despairingly, he never could deal with Naruto when he started to cry. He just glanced at Kakashi and Gai, they got the silent message and left the brothers by themselves.

"What's wrong, Chibi-Kit?" Ranma asked him using the new nickname he thought up. Naruto just tightly hugged his brother and cried even harder into his chest, "I'm never gonna be a ninja, am I!" He screamed out.

The only thing Ranma could do was pick him up and gently cradle him in his arms. He wanted to say something encouraging, anything, but he found his vocal cords refusing to speak… he just couldn't find an answer to that question.

Later that night, Noriko walked downstairs after consoling her crying baby and tucking him into bed. "Do you mind telling me what happened tonight, Ranma-chan?" She softly asked as she sat down on the sofa next to her eldest, who currently had his head on his hands and knees.

"I just don't get it 'kaa-chan, over a month of near non-stop training and he's not even a bit closer to summoning chakra," he miserably sighed out. "I have to find out the problem soon or else he'll lose all his self-confidence…"

After minutes of silence, Ranma finally turned to his mother with determined eyes. "There is one method I've been thinking of using, but the consequences might be too severe," he said with a grim expression, "I've already told Jiji about my idea, and he said that he'll leave it to my best judgment."

Slightly afraid and curious, she tentatively asked, "What's your idea…?" She then got up to follow her son as he walked upstairs to Naruto's room. She saw him slowly open the door and lean against the doorway, "I can force my own chakra into his body, if his inner-coils have been clogged up by the Kyuubi then my chakra should clean it out, letting him gather his own chakra at will……"

Seeing him pause, she got worried. "But? What's wrong with this method?" She didn't want him to use it if it threaten her baby's life. Ranma just sighed once again and sat down on the hallway floor, "If I mess up even in the slightest, then my chakra could screw up tou-san's seal of the Kyuubi, and I don't know what'll happen then……"

"I don't want you to do it…" She finally said after a moment of silent shock.

"But…!" He started to say before she cut him off, "I don't care, I don't want anything done to him that'll endanger his life."

"Kaa-chan, you have to understand if we don't do something right now then Naruto will basically be dead," he mumbled out. "To him, becoming Hokage is his lifelong dream, to become a ninja is what he wants, if he can't even summon his chakra then how will he be able to achieve these goals?"

With her head bowed down he could start to see tears falling from her eyes, Ranma just quickly hugged his mother hoping this would comfort her. "Do it……" she finally breathed out after a few minutes, "I don't want my baby to live his life in sadness, he deserves happiness the most. What kind of mother would I be if I deprived him of that."

It was like deciding for a family member to have a life-threatening operation that could save their life or to let them slowly rot away. His mother had chosen the option that could save his life, and he felt that she made the right decision.

"Kaa-chan, this is going to take a lot of concentration and precision, so I'm going to need you to wait downstairs." She just slowly nodded, and took one last look at Naruto before walking down.

He then started to deeply breath in and out, trying to calm his nerves. "Tsunade-chama, please give me strength because yours would help me out greatly here," he whispered to himself, before walking into the room and kneeling down next to his brother. He carefully took off Naruto's shirt, and placed his hands over his stomach. After a while of gathering his chakra to his hand, he began to transfer the energy and almost immediately he saw the seal resurface on his stomach as his brother began to glow blue and moan and fidget, _'Oh god, please let this work……'_ he silently prayed as he continued the transfer, already sweating from the strain.

Noriko waited the longest two hours of her life before she watched her son slowly walk down the stairs, who was just pale, sweaty, and shaking like a leaf. She quickly walked up and hugged him as he fell into her arms, "It's done… everything's… okay now," she heard him whisper before falling asleep. She just sighed sadly and prayed that everything really would be okay……

* * *

The following day, Ranma and the others took Naruto to train again and almost instantly the young boy was able to summon his chakra. In fact, his chakra was so overwhelming that he looked like a mini bon-fire. "Naruto, stop!" Noriko quickly yelled out before he could create some real damage. 

She looked back to see her son, Kakashi and Gai just stare at the boy, who fainted from exhaustion, in a state of shock and disbelief. It wasn't too surprising though, it's not everyday you see a young child able to summon that much chakra, judging by her calculations she'd say Naruto's chakra was somewhere in the low-genin range. Nowhere near as impressive as her eldest son at that age, but it was still pretty amazing for a "normal" 4-year old.

"My god……" Gai mumbled to himself.

"………" Kakashi was so stunned that he didn't even realize he had dropped his book on the ground.

"Kaa-chan, what the hell was that?" Ranma whispered as he walked up to her.

"Ranma-chan, I think the first lesson you need to teach Naruto is how to summon chakra a fraction at a time, or else he's always going to faint from releasing everything at once," Noriko remarked as she picked up her youngest child, who was still unconscious.

The rest of the day was pretty much a bust, since Noriko took Naruto back home to rest and recuperate. Kakashi and Gai soon parted with Ranma, who was currently walking through the busy streets of Konoha, thinking about what he just saw. _'I knew it, I just knew it, Naruto isn't your average child…'_ he silently told himself, _'…granted his potential is nowhere near mine, well actually it's still way too early to tell right now.'_

His contemplations were interrupted when he quickly felt himself being hugged tightly around the neck and two large perky-molds on his back. "Ran-chan!" A very, VERY familiar voice yelled out as he was tackled to the ground face-first.

"Anko-chan……" he mumbled into the dirt. Picking himself up, he look behind his shoulder to see a 16-year old Mitarashi Anko nuzzling the back of his neck. Man, this girl always gave him the creeps and not in a bad way either. Being the number one student of Orochimaru had made her very sneaky, so he could never tell when she was going to pop out next. Hmmm… that was strange, she was wearing that raincoat he had given her for her last birthday, he didn't know why she wore it today since it was blazing hot. In fact, now that he thought about it, she wore that coat **everyday** ever since he gave it to her.

"Mah… Anko-chan mind letting me go, you're hurting my neck." Ranma gently said because he didn't want her to get the wrong idea. If she thought that he didn't want her around then the next few days were gonna be a living hell. He inwardly shuddered remembering what happened when he had to cancel their first date 'cause of a last-minute mission. He still couldn't figure out how she managed to rig his entire room with over a hundred sewage-filled water bombs, during the dead of night, which got thrown at him at precisely 6 o'clock in the morning. Man, this girl sure was creative……

Reluctantly letting go of him, she set her devious plan into motion. Grasping her babies, she lifted them up a little so he could see better, "Ran-chan do you think that my breasts have grown bigger?" Anko cutely titled her head while looking him straight in the eye, she was delighted to see his head fling back as blood gushed out of his nose. "Hahahahaha…" she was soon rolling around on the floor, laughing her cute butt off, "Oh god, you are way too easy to tease… lover."

With wads of paper shoved up his nose, Ranma nervously jumped back to his feet and waved his hands around. "Would you stop calling me that! We only went on three dates for leaf's sakes!" he quietly whispered to her, after all he didn't want people to think he was some kind of gigolo at only the age of 12.

He already got enough weird stares from various girls, he didn't want everyone in Konoha to look at him strangely.

"Awww… don't be so mean, lover," she purred as she nuzzled and licked his neck causing him to shiver in pleasure. _'Oh man, is this girl scary… but so hot… but so scary… but so freakin hot… but so, so scary…'_ while he was in a silent argument with himself, Anko took a step back so she could see his reaction and frowned as he was apparently talking to himself.

'_Oh, he's doing that so scary, so hot thing again,'_ She always did find it funny to watch him argue with himself. _'Hey, wait a minute…'_ She waved her hand in front of his face, and was glad to see him still out of it, _'…Chance!"_ Taking a hold of his hand, she quickly but gently led him into a dark alleyway all the while grinning like a cat who finally caught her prey.

A few minutes later, a high-pitched shriek could be heard and a half-naked Ranma ran out of the alleyway as fast as possible. If one looked closer and believe me a lot of girls were doing just that, they could see lipstick marks leading all the way from his face down to his…… well, you get the idea.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, the villagers turned to the alleyway and saw Anko walking out, putting her clothes back on, looking very irritated and frustrated. Then she snapped her fingers and cursed to herself, _'Almost got him…'_

Seeing that she had an audience, she just smirked, seductively licked her lips, and whispered "…delicious," before happily skipping away. An awkward silence hit that part of Konoha and when everyone started moving again, the women were all cursing one 'slutty' 16-year old chuunin while the men could be seen walking very stiffly and cursing one lucky 12-year jounin.

Finally coming to a stop 20 blocks away, Ranma just leaned against the wall panting and wheezing. _'Oh geez, I should have known better than to let my guard down near her,'_ he berated himself, then took a quick peek down his pants before turning red. _'Wow, but that felt really good, wonder if she'll do it again…… no, can't let her corrupt me!'_ He then bashed his head into the wall causing it to crack and him to curse.

"Ow, son of a… not gonna do that again," he mumbled as he walked away rubbing his forehead, but just then a shadow could be seen following him. He raised an eyebrow in suspicion and quickly turned around, but the sight that met him was of an empty street. "That's strange, I could have sworn…" He shrugged before walking away again.

The shadow then started following him again, and when he turned at a corner it saw that he had disappeared. _'What? Where did he…'_ its thoughts were interrupted when it felt its arm being twisted behind its back. "Alright you, who are you and why are you following me?" Ranma said as he turned the stalker around, and his eyes widened in shock… "Kurenai-chan! What are you doing here!"

That's right folks, the stalker was none other than a 17-year old Yuuhi Kurenai. This beautiful flower of Konoha was wearing her traditional kunoichi fishnets, blue and black clothing, had her hair in a ponytail, and was currently shaking nervously in front of Ranma.

"Ummm… you see…Ranma-kun…" She had to quickly think up an excuse or else her crush was going to think that she was a freak! "… uhhh… you dropped your kunai back there, and I was just following you to give it back." She inwardly cursed at such a lame excuse, _'He's not gonna buy that, and now he's gonna avoid me for being a stalking weirdo who shakes and stutters every time she sees him……'_

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard him talk again. "Oh, thanks a lot Kurenai-chan, it's nice to see a girl who isn't scared of me or stalking me for a change," the gullible idiot sighed in relief, as he scratched his head. "You have no idea how hard it is to have cute girls scared of you (Ayame) or to be chased by so many scary-ass girls (Anko)," he said in exasperation, "I wonder if 'tou-san had this problem too." When he heard nothing but silence, Ranma looked up to see that Kurenai was gone!

"What the hell… that was rude, she didn't even say goodbye or give me my kunai back," Ranma just grumbled about girls being weird before walking away with his hands in his pockets.

Behind the corner of a building, Kurenai was breathing hard at almost being caught then slowly peeked out to catch one last glimpse of her crush as he walked away, _'Ranma-kun……_' she inwardly whispered.

Ranma should add stalking weirdoes to his list of "Crazy-Fangirls-to-Avoid."

As he was walking down the streets, he accidentally bumped into someone. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to…" he trailed off when he saw who it was, "oh, it's just you, Violent Tomboy." Ranma extended his hand to help her back to her feet, but was caught off-guard when she roughly grabbed his hand and twisted his arm to flip him onto his back.

Looking up, he could see the smirking face of Uzuki Yugao. The reason he called her a violent tomboy was because she liked to beat people up (usually him), yell loudly, break things constantly, usually wore pants all the time (granted they were tight but still), and talk in a masculine manner. Even though they were friends now, in the beginning the only reason he even put up with her was 'cause she was the girlfriend/lover/fiancée of his close friend Gekko Hayate, speaking of whom, "Hey, where's the Paleface Twinkletoes?"

When she smacked him across the face, he remembered that she was the only person he couldn't call Hayate by his nickname around. "Haya-chan's in the store buying some drinks," Yugao told the glaring boy rubbing his cheek.

In that moment the two got into a huge argument about why she hit him. A couple of minutes later, Hayate walked out and was surprised to see his girlfriend currently trying to break his friend's legs. "Say it!" she yelled out as she tightened the Sharpshooter (a leg-lock), "Okay, okay! Uncle, uncle, I give up! You're the greatest, strongest, and prettiest!" the boy cried out. He started to grumble under his breath as he got up and rubbed his legs, then looked up to see the 'lovey-dovey' scene of his two friends all over each other like sex-crazed animals.

'_Damn, how embarrassing, you think these two would have some self-control… or at least wait to get a room. Why don't they just get married already, they have to know they're Soulmates by now,'_ He dusted off his pants, and walked away but not before getting one final insult in……

"Oi, Paleface. You should really get a new girlfriend, preferably one who doesn't resemble a gorilla!" Ranma quickly ran away as Hayate held Yugao back from chasing him down and breaking his body in half.

Later that evening, he arrived home to see his brother cuddling with his mother watching a ninja-movie on the sofa. When he sat down next to them, he was surprised to see his brother immediately start laughing and pointing at him, while his mother just looked at him with wide eyes.

"What?" Ranma asked confused, all he wanted to do was relax after this tiring day of fangirls and tomboys.

Noriko quickly got over her shock and just smirked in amusement. "Hmmm… I was just wondering what the name of my future daughter-in-law is," she asked her now-frozen son.

'_Daughter-in-Law? What's she talking about…'_ Then his eyes widen in realization, and he rushed right towards a mirror. _'Oh no, no, no, nonononono, I can't be that stupid, right……!'_ He just stared at his reflection to see that his face was still covered with Anko's lipstick, _'I am… I am that stupid,'_ He dumbly thought while both his mother and brother were now laughing at him from the living room.

* * *

The next day, Ranma was training in the forest beating on a poor defenseless tree after that embarrassing moment last night. _'Geez, how could I have so blind? You think somebody could have told me, bet they're laughing about it too,'_ His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the annoying voice of an annoying man. 

"Ora, ora, I heard about your little fling last night Ranma! I'm so proud of you!" Jiraiya yelled out with a large perverted grin as he dropped down from the sky. Ranma could still see that he was bandaged up from the beating that his mother gave him over a month ago.

'_I'm not in the mood for this pervert's antics right now. Hmmm… now may be the perfect time to try out my new jutsu,'_ Jiraiya was now slowly backing away when Ranma turned to him with a evil gleam in his eye, then his own eyes widen in surprise and glee at what he saw next.

"Orioke no Jutsu (Sexy no Jutsu)!" Ranma screamed out as he transformed himself into a fully-developed curvaceous drop-dead-gorgeous red-headed woman whose magnificent naked body was only covered by thin streams of smoke. 'She' watched satisfied as Jiraiya flew back from a massive nosebleed knocking himself out on a rock, then he turned back to normal and walked up to the unconscious man.

'_Wow, I'm surprised that actually worked. Considering how big a pervert Jiraiya-sama is, you'd think a naked woman would be nothing to him,'_ Ranma thought to himself as he tied the frog-hermit up with rope. However, Ranma just didn't understand how beautiful his 'Orioke no Jutsu' truly was, even the greatest of all super-perverts wouldn't be able to stand up against him… uhhh… I mean her!

Ranma then licked his finger and lifted it into the air to test the wind current. Satisfied at his results, he grabbed the unconscious man and used a great deal of chakra to throw him towards the appropriate direction. "Hehehehehe, I wish I could see this…" he evilly whispered to himself, while rubbing his hands together.

The women of Konoha were just taking a relaxing bath in the public baths when they were rudely interrupted by something crashing down from the sky, landing with a giant splash. They all quickly covered themselves and curiously looked into the water to see that it was a MAN! Well sorta… nevertheless they quickly got over their shock and began to pick up various items to bash the pervert into oblivion.

Ranma was satisfied when he heard a loud terrified scream from the distance, and literally patted himself on the back for a job well done. He was surprised when he heard clapping and quickly turned around to see his mother standing on a rock with a proud smirk of her own.

"Very **interesting** way to deal with the handicap of a stronger opponent, Ranma-chan," she told her blushing son. "However, I don't think that same jutsu will work against me…" She then unsheathed her sword, and slowly walked towards the wide-eyed Ranma.

"Ummm…… say what now?" He then quickly jumped towards the side to avoid a hurricane-blast which instantly blew away the trees and rocks behind him. No matter how many times he saw it, he was always astounded with his mother's kenjutsu techniques, it was as if the woman could do anything with a sword. Whether it be fire, lightning, air, water, ice, earth, or wood, if Noriko had a sword in hand then she could attack using any of these elements and so much more.

Gulping nervously, he just quickly jumped to his feet and rushed his mother hoping to catch her off-guard with his speed. She easily countered this though, by quickly bending down and tripping him up with a low spin kick. As he was falling backwards, she sprang forward and kicked him in the jaw sending him tumbling across the ground, he then quickly recovered to springboard off a tree straight into the air and started the hand-seals for one of his favorite jutsus.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan (Water Skill: Water Dragon)!" He then shot a giant water dragon out from his mouth. It's been a long while since Ranma learned how to perform water-type jutsus without a large medium of water around, so Noriko wasn't surprised in the least.

Noriko calmly watched as the water dragon got closer and closer and just before it reached her, she unsheathed her sword and stabbed the blade into the ground in less than a second. This action caused a huge mountain-like rock to quickly rise up from the earth to instantly explode the water dragon into harmless rain. She then lifted her sword out of the ground to have the mountain collapse back into the earth, leaving nothing but untouched dirt and grass.

'_It's just surreal…'_ Ranma thought in amazement as he landed, _'The release is so perfect, you can't even tell that the earth was just dug out.'_ Noriko then quickly ran towards her son and leaned her sword against his throat, just slightly touching the skin. This was done so fast, that Ranma just saw his mother disappear before instantly reappearing right before him.

It seemed that no matter how fast he was, his mother was still that much faster.

"How disappointing my son, what's got your head in the clouds today? You're not usually beaten this fast…" Noriko asked as she released Ranma and sheathed her sword. Then without even turning around, she quickly plucked him out of the air before slamming him into the floor, as he tried to catch her off-guard with a tackle. "Tsk, tsk, you know better than to try and sneak-attack me," She berated as she picked him up and wiped off his clothes.

'_Woah, when did I hit the ground…?'_ he dizzily thought as he shook his head to get rid of the stars. "Ummm… nothing's got me preoccupied kaa-chan, I was just mesmerized by your sword technique," Ranma told her as she sat down on a rock.

"I don't see what's so impressive, you're able to do the same thing," she frowned when she saw him shake his head, "What do you mean no? Haven't you been practicing like I told you to."

"Kaa-chan, of course I have but I'm still not able to do the things you are," Ranma told her as he unsheathed his own katana. "I can do most of your techniques but not to your level. I mean if I attempted that earth technique in the same situation, then the mountain probably would have collapsed under the pressure and weight of the water dragon."

Ranma then heated the blade up making it turn red, before quickly slashing downwards into the sky creating a fire-wheel to fly up before slowly dissipating into nothing. Noriko just nodded as she saw him do this, of course she understood the problem, after all there was a big difference between their experience and chakra levels. It would have been the same thing if he were to compare a ninjutsu-technique used by him and the Hokage.

"Don't worry about that, you'll learn to expand and perfect those techniques just like I have. You just have to be patient." She got up and kissed him on the cheek before walking away, "Now I have to go pick up Naruto from nursery, I'm sure Yamanaka-san and Haruno-san could use some relief."

Ranma just nodded, he felt really sorry for the matriarchs of the Yamanaka and Haruno household. Setting up a nursery in the room above the flower shop and running it together wasn't their best idea, especially with troublemakers like Naruto and that dog-boy… what was his name again, Kibbles? Bit?

Oh well, whatever, it's not like he really cared. He never was good at remembering people's names, besides he had more important things to do today.

He started walking towards the 'Go' Parlor to relax with a nice stimulating game of 'Go.' Maybe Asuma was there, oh who was he kidding, of course Asuma was there! If he wasn't invited to his house those few times, Ranma would have been positive that cigarette-smoking lazy bum was living in that place.

He starting playing 'Go' about two years ago when he was 10 years old. Back then, he was just about to pummel some drunken dumbass who had the nerve to insult Naruto in front of him, when this smoker kid beat him to the punch… literally! He completely knocked the moron out with a single punch and sent him flying across the street, which was really impressive since the guy was big and mega-fat. The kid introduced himself as Sarutobi Asuma, no relation to Sandaime though, and asked Ranma if he wanted to play a game of 'Go' in a nearby parlor. He's been playing ever since, especially since Asuma kept beating him all the time, he just couldn't allow that conceited smirk to continue to exist!

Just before he could enter the 'Go' parlor, yet another annoying voice interrupted him. "Ranma-kun, I heard of your shameful exploits the other evening! How disappointing!" He just rolled his eyes and turned around to see Ebisu, a 17-year old who recently made Tokubetsu Jounin (Special Jounin). Ranma acknowledged that the guy was an excellent teacher but in terms of personality he had a lot to work on. Not to mention, he was a hypocrite, always reprimanding him for his shameful perverted behavior when in reality he was the one who liked to read porn all the time, more specifically Icha-Icha Paradise.

"What do you want Ebisu-sensei? I'm sorta busy right now," Ranma dully said as he leaned on a wall. Ebisu just lifted his sunglasses up with his middle finger, and opened his mouth to say something but he found that he couldn't…… not when a hand was covering it, then he felt himself being dragged away. Turning his head, he saw two Kage-Bunshins (Shadow-Clones) of Ranma smirking down at him. "Aw, so sorry to see that you can't stay Ebisu-sensei. Maybe we'll meet up later," the real Ranma cheerfully said, and waved at the irate Loser-Pervert before walking into the parlor.

Looking around, Ranma saw several of his friends already there, just lounging around like usual. The odd thing was that nobody else **but** his friends were there, this place was usually crowded with old fogies. Oh wait, there was a cloaked person in the corner. _'Weird…'_ He thought as he walked up to… a mummy-man?

"Woah, what the hell happened to you Raido-san!" Ranma asked in astonishment when he saw the 21-year old Jounin's face completely bandaged up.

Seeing that he currently wasn't in a position to talk, Genma answered for him, "The idiot got caught off-guard during an escort mission and got slashed on his left cheek with a sword." Raido just glared at the 19-year old Jounin. He wasn't an idiot dammit, he just got sucker-punched or rather sucker-slashed!

The Sucker Idiot mumbled something under his breath, thinking that nobody could understand him. "Oi, oi, I'm not a punk just because I wear a bandana and chew on a toothpick, I do this purposely to look cool and pick up chicks." Genma, the Punk Farmer-Boy, then smirked at the older man's shocked face, "That's right, I can understand everything you say. I just didn't mention it before 'cause I like annoying you Raido."

Ignoring yet another pair of idiots, Ranma just walked up to a 19-year Chuunin named Aoba, who he dubbed Four-Eyed Geek. He wasn't calling him a geek 'cause he wore glasses, he called him a geek 'cause he wore glasses **and** read manga all the time. "Damn, Aoba-san why do you read that stuff, don't you know manga-geeks get picked on by cool people, like me and Genma-san," He ignored the fact that they liked reading manga as well.

"Nani, Ranma-kun? Manga is really interesting especially if the manga-ka (the creator) is a genius and is able to take a cliché storyline and make it seem original because of the amazing character development and writing." Aoba stated as he kept lifting up his glasses with his index finger, "Although there was this one manga called Naruto that really stood out in the beginning, but now it deteriorated into being too much like DBZ."

Ranma knew what manga he was talking about and just nodded, he picked up a few volumes 'cause it was named after his little brother. He had to admit the plot was excellent in the beginning but agreed with Aoba that it eventually became too much like Dragonball Z, thus dubbed it trash before he stopped reading it altogether. He found Dragonball Z to be great, but all the clones that came after just made him mad. _'Damn rip-offs…'_

Ranma just left the Four-Eyed Geek to his manga since he couldn't really argue with his last statement, besides he had those volumes of 'Konjiki no Bell,' 'D Gray-Man,' and 'Gintama' at home. He finally walked over to where the rest of the guys were sitting down, and saw that Kakashi and Gai were having another of their so-called destined duels, but this time they were playing 'Go.' Obviously Gai was winning by a large margin since Kakashi had no idea what he was doing, and finally Mushroom-Head proclaimed his victory over the inferior Half-Face and began to pose several hundred times.

Rolling his eyes at the always-strange sight, he sat down in front of the Charcoal Bum. Ranma glared at the 17-year old who was just smirking, "Condescending bastard, today your reign of evil ends!"

He froze in shock when Asuma suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, _'What the…?'_ he looked around to see that everyone else was gone too. _'Okay, this is getting freaky…'_ he then heard a sound behind the counter and decided to check it out. He was shocked to see over thirty people lying on the floor, tied up and gagged, including his friends. "What happened to you guys?" Ranma asked curiously, he jumped over and ripped off the gag around Gai before asking him the same question. He blinked in confusion at the sight of Gai freezing up, his eyes getting really wide and finally he started to quiver in fear.

Ranma was about to turn around to see what scared the man, when he felt a gentle breeze in his ear and a frighteningly familiar voice whisper, "Welcome to my parlor of love, Ran-chan."

"Uh-oh……" was all he managed to get out before he got quickly tied up, and was spun around on a stool to see Anko smirking victoriously at him. "Anko-chan, when'd you get here!" he cried out before he saw her raise her eyebrow and suddenly he felt really stupid, "Oh man, that cloaked guy was you, huh?"

"You know lover, for being an once-in-a-lifetime genius prodigy, you sure are slow," she told him as she slithered into his lap and started kissing him passionately. Ranma just let Anko do this for a few more minutes, since it felt really good, before shaking her lips off.

"Let me go Anko-chan!" He yelled out indignantly, he couldn't let a girl of all people make a fool out of him, even if it was the Snake Goddess. "Hmmm… let me think about that…" Anko pondered on it for about a second before quickly kissing him again, and let go of him after about 10 more minutes, "………….… no." She grinned at seeing her pet's eyes roll back from too much tongue.

'_I got to do something before she takes complete advantage of me,'_ Ranma thought despairingly, then he saw his chance as the perfect distraction walked, the Blushing Tomato. "Kurenai-chan!" The moment Anko's head turned, he made his move……

Seeing that it really was Kurenai, Anko just shrugged before closing her eyes and kissing her boytoy again. She then grimaced at the weird taste that was not Ranma, and opened her eyes to see that she had just kissed a tied-up Kakashi on his mask. Of course she had to ask the question that was on the tip of her tongue… literally, "Why does your mask taste so weird?" She shuddered in disgust as he blushed, then sighed as she looked around to see that Ranma was no longer there.

"I still have a lot of pent up frustration, so I'm going to need you boys for awhile, okay?" Anko casually said as she walked over to the exits before closing and locking them, her smiled wavered at seeing that all the men had perverted grins on their faces. _'Men… they only think of one thing **with** only one thing, except for Ran-chan,'_ she thought to herself as she brought out her kunai and shuriken before smiling evilly as their faces became pale and scared.

'…… _and that's what makes him special,'_ She lovingly thought as she brought her kunai down on a wide-eyed, whimpering Kakashi.

Hearing the terrified high-pitched shrieks within the 'Love' Parlor, Ranma just clapped his hands together twice before silently praying that they lived through the Anko Luv-Luv Torture Session. The Jounin-men should be able to, since he came out alive after suffering through it more than a couple of times, but he wasn't so sure about the regular civilians.

'_Oh well, not my problem,'_ Ranma thought as he walked up to a blushing Kurenai, who he grabbed and switched with a Kage Bunshin before leaving. He chuckled nervously seeing that she was once again shaking, but made his move anyway. The next moment was literally a blur for Kurenai as she felt him hug her and gently kiss her on the lips, before whispering "Thanks for the help, Blushing-Tomato."

An hour after Ranma left, Kurenai was still frozen in disbelief at what just happened to her, but now the only thing different was that she had a big happy grin on her face. Naruto stopped to curiously look at her as he was walking home from the grocery-store for candy. Then he cautiously poked her in the leg, which caused her to fall over like a statue, and him to run away in fear screaming how he broke the lady.

* * *

During the rest of the year, Naruto had to learn how to "Tree-Climb" and "Water-Walk" with help from his brother, his mother, Kakashi-sensei, and Gai-sensei. When he finally learned how to do these perfectly after months of grueling practice and hard work, his brother took him on a three-month trip as a reward, with consent from their mother, to Kirigakure no Sato (Hidden Mist Village) and Sunagakure no Sato (Hidden Sand Village). 

When Naruto reached the age of 5, Ranma decided it was for that the ninja-to-be to learn some ninjutsu techniques before he entered the academy, that way he could make a good impression on the teachers. So he began the extensive training lessons, but there was just one minor problem…… his brother sucked at Bunshin no Jutsu!

Ranma just couldn't understand it, how could someone be unable to learn Bunshin, it's the easiest jutsu out there besides Henge and Kawarimi. Even a 5-year should be able to do it, yes he realized the irony of the situation. Because of this setback, half the year was wasted before Ranma finally gave up and tried to teach him Kage Bunshin just for laughs. He was stunned, shocked, surprised and just plain baffled to see his brother created a Kage Bunshin clone perfectly. What… the… hell…… he wasted 6 months on Bunshin, when he could have just taught his little brother the better version!

Ranma then spent the following week bashing his head on various things for his stupidity, including Anko's breasts that one time, which made him hide for another week. After the two weeks passed, he had to set up a meeting between Naruto and Sandaime Hokage because of the fact that the kid learned a forbidden technique, which Ranma was punished for (night patrol duty for the next 6 months). Kage Bunshin was made forbidden after the war between Konoha and Iwa, along with so many other jutsus. Soon after Arashi had been named Yondaime, he made sure that all class-S and A techniques which could prove to be a serious threat, would never be taught or learned again.

After everything was said and done, Ranma decided to teach Naruto some more ninjutsu techniques, such as Konoha's specialty, the basic Katon no Jutsu (Fire Technique). He was surprised that his younger brother picked it up within a few days and went on to teach him several other low to mid-class techniques that'll help him throughout his academy days and his ninja career.

* * *

At the beginning of the Academy Entrance Ceremony, the now 14-year old Ranma could see his mother's tears slowly falling down her cheek while proudly looking at Naruto. "You know…" she started to say, "… I always regretted not being able to this with you, since you never had the chance to become an academy student." 

"What are you saying, kaa-chan?" He wondered if she was losing her memory in her old age, "Don't you remember my big Jounin-Initiation party, that was technically my entrance ceremony into ninja-hood." He then frowned at seeing her shake her head and whisper, "It's not the same……"

Ranma knew what she meant of course, she always did hate the fact that he grew up too fast, that he never got to enjoy the great things about being a child. To an extent, he felt the same way, how it would feel to be around people his own age and just relax and have fun, but deep down he knew that he wouldn't change a thing about his past…… except for **that** day.

Looking at her son's face, Noriko could see from his frown that he was remembering the Kyuubi-attack, the day when everything changed for their family. In fact, looking around, she could see several faces nervously look towards Naruto. It seems even though the village finally accepted him as one of their own, they still couldn't help but be wary of leaving him alone with their children.

Oh well, its best not to dwell on the negative aspects of life, not on this momentous occasion anyway. _'Oh, Arashi, you would be so proud of our baby-boy…'_ she thought as she looked at Naruto who was shaking in excitement. "Kaa-chan, I'm going to school, I'm going to school!" he started to happily say, before he frowned "… hey wait, I'm going to school." Noriko tried her hardest not to laugh at his disheartened face.

"Oi, oi, Chibi-Kit at least you'll be able to see your friends all the time and learn cool ninja-tricks," he cheerfully told his little brother. He was speechless when he heard Naruto's clever retort, "But I was able to do that anyway in nursery and with you…" Ranma then looked at his mother with shocked eyes, "When did he get so smart, kaa-chan? He wouldn't have been able to figure that out before."

Noriko just giggled and looped her arm around his, before they started walking around. "Ranma-chan, you'll just have to accept the fact that Naruto's growing up and getting smarter," she told him as they were looking around the schoolyard. "Yeah maybe, but I didn't expect for…… the Chibi-Kit to be gone! Where is he!" Ranma said as he looked around in a panic. Noriko just rolled her eyes at her son's antics, _'good lord, and he calls me overprotective?'_ she thought in irony as she grabbed his head and turned it slightly to the left.

"He's right over there, playing with the rest of his friends," She raised an eyebrow at his confused look, "What's wrong, Ranma-chan?" He just turned to her, scratching his head "… when did he get so many friends? I never noticed all these little kids hanging around him before."

Noriko just sighed theatrically, "You're so clueless sometimes. Naruto made all his friends during nursery, so of course you never saw them." That made sense to him, he always did wonder what the kid was doing when they weren't training. Just as they were about to continue their make-shift tour, he heard a melodic voice yell out, "Ranma-dono!" Both mother and son turned around to see a beautiful young lady walking up to them, holding the hand of a cute girl who was hiding behind her legs.

'_I was wondering when she was going to show up… Hyuuga Natsumi,'_ Ranma thought to himself, as she walked up to his mother and politely bowed. This 14-year old girl was definitely trouble, but not in a way that got him angry, just annoyed. She was referred to as the prodigy of the Hyuuga Clan because of her unnatural control over her chakra, and the fact that she was able to use most of the Hyuuga-Family secret techniques at the tender age of 7.

He met her during his mother's pregnancy with Naruto, when he was in the hospital after that horrific incident with Orochimaru. He was roaming around the halls, bored out of his mind, when he bumped into this cute girl. He was about to apologize when she just ignored him and walked right passed him. That made him mad, nobody ignored him! So the next few days, he spent a great deal of his free time teasing her, playing tricks on her, and just bothering her in general, finally she just snapped and tried to beat him up using a palm-fist style called Buu-ken or something like that. She was surprised to find that he easily defeated her, and thus began **her** crusade to try and crush the infuriating boy whose only purpose in life was to look cute and annoy people.

Eventually they became friends after months of fighting and shouting, and he was still amazed to see the changes that's been made in the girl ever since. Nearly all the Hyuugas in the main house were stuck-up pompous jerks, but Natsumi was nothing like that. In fact he thought she was way-too cheery for any human being, always going on about how she loved cuteness and cuddly things.

In his mind, what made her trouble was her annoying habit of capturing his embarrassing moments on film, either pictures or videos, and showing them to everyone he knew. He'll never forget that moment he messed up a fire jutsu and accidentally burned himself on his butt, only to see the next day that all his friends were watching a video of it, laughing their heads off!

'_Stupid devil-girl…'_ he bitterly thought as she hugged him. "Kaa-chan, why don't you go mingle with the parents, I think I see Yamanaka-san over there with her husband and his friends," Ranma suggested, then his mother just nodded before leaving to talk to her gossip-buddy. _'Awww, my son has a girlfriend! I can't wait to tell the others,'_ she gleefully thought as she hasten her pace.

Ranma then shivered and took a glimpse at his mother, _'Why do I get the feeling that kaa-chan just walked over my grave,'_ he just shrugged and turned to Natsumi who was trying to get her cousin to go mingle herself. "Hinata-chan, you have to go over and talk to the other kids. How else are you doing to make friends otherwise?" She just sighed as the young girl held onto her neck even tighter. Then she sent a pleading look to Ranma that just screamed 'help me!'

"Yo Naru-chan, get over here!" Ranma shouted at his brother, who stopped talking with his friends and quickly ran over to him. "Nani, nii-chan? I was playing with my friends…" Naruto whined, before his brother picked him up by his arms and set him down in front of this girl with white eyes. _'Ehhh…?'_ he thought confused.

"Hyuuga Hinata, this is Uzumaki Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto, this is Hyuuga Hinata." Ranma introduced the two to each other. He then bent down and whispered in his brother's ears, "Naru-chan, go take this girl and introduce her to the rest of your friends, I'm sure you wouldn't mind the extra company right?"

Naruto was about to protest because the girl looked really weird with her large bunny-like eyes, but conceded when his brother smack him behind his head. Grumbling, he took the shy girl's hand and dragged her over to his friends.

"Ora, ora, what's with your itouko (cousin)?" Ranma asked his companion as they walked over to a food vendor, "I thought all you Hyuugas were supposed to be bursting with that invincible confidence of yours…" He took a bite of his sandwich before continuing, "…but she looks like she'll faint at the sight of a squirrel running towards her."

"She's just lacking confidence, I don't think ojii-sama really wants her as the heiress of the Hyuuga Clan." Hearing that, Ranma just choked on his food and coughed violently. He finally forced the lump down his throat, with a slap on the back from Natsumi, before turning to her with a shocked expression, "She's the heiress! You got to be kidding me, with her in charge, all the Hyuugas are gonna turn into scared weak little bunnies!" He regretted saying that because not even a second later she punched him over the back of the head… hard!

Ignoring the dumb-fool on the ground clutching his head, Natsumi finished eating her own sandwich before walking away in a huff. Seeing this, Ranma quickly got up and chased after her, "Oh come on Natsumi, don't be like that. I was just kidding…!" Unfortunately his pleas for forgiveness were just ignored.

Meanwhile, over at the children's area. "Yo, minna (everyone), this is ummm… Binota!" Naruto cheerfully introduced the Hyuuga-heiress to his friends… well, sorta. Then he rubbed his head in pain after Ino slapped him over the back, "Itai! What the hell you'd do that for, Ino-chan!" he shouted indignantly.

Ino just grabbed his ear and tugged it towards her, "Because you idiot, her name's Hinata, not Binota!" she shrieked right into his ear. She personally knew the girl since she met her a few times in the flower shop, when her older cousin always came in to buy some flower-arrangements for the Hyuuga compound.

Letting go of Naruto, who was shaking his head trying to get the ringing to stop, Ino walked over to the silent girl and smiled. "Hey, Hinata-chan I'm glad to see you're here too, let me introduce you to everyone." She grabbed the young girl's hand and walked over to the rest of her friends, "this is Nara Shikamaru…" pointing at a bored-looking kid sitting on the ground, "Akimichi Chouji…" pointing at a chubby-kid eating potato-chips, "Inuzuka Kiba…" pointing at a boy with a puppy on his head, "and last, but not least Aburame Shino…" pointing at a gothic-looking boy with only the top-half of his face uncovered.

Then Ino rolled her eyes when she heard a scream of protest. Scoffing, she waved her hand over to Naruto's direction, "Oh yeah, and this stupid-head is Uzumaki Naruto but I'm sure you already knew that." Ino said with a bland tone. Naruto then walked to her side with a scowl before looking around, "Hey wait, where'd Sakura-chan go?" he curiously asked, "She was just here a moment ago… wasn't she?"

"Oh, her mama took her home earlier because she started crying after some kids made fun of her forehead," Ino frowned at the memory, she did stand up for her best friend and chased the bullies away but the pink-haired girl just wouldn't stop crying.

"Oh, poor Sakura-chan. I don't get it, her forehead's not big… maybe her head is just too small?" Naruto wondered outloud. Ino just mumbled under her breath about how stupid a person can possibly be, before turning back to Hinata. "We're all gonna get something to eat later with our mommies, daddies, and one brother, you want to come along?" The blonde girl felt it was only right to invite her since she was now part of their elite group of super-ninja-buddies!

Hinata was about to politely decline when a cheerful voice cut her off, "She'd be delighted to!" Turning around, she saw her older cousin and that handsome boy walk over to them. "But onee-sama, shouldn't we go home and tell otou-sama that I'm in the academy now?" Hinata asked in a scared tone, after all she didn't want to make her father angry.

Natsumi just waved that suggestion away, "Bah, don't worry about it Hinata-chan. Just leave ol' fuddy-duddy 'jii-sama to me." She then picked up her cousin and held her lovingly in her arms, "Today is your day to enjoy yourself, and you deserve to have some fun and be happy." When she felt Hinata's small arms encircle her, she just smiled warmly and gently kissed her head.

Ranma just smiled at the touching sight, before he caught the sight of a man he particularly didn't like. _'Uchiha Fugaku…'_ he thought distastefully, _'I'm surprised the guy's even here to see Sasuke's entry.'_ Glancing down, he caught sight of the young boy who just looked really sad and depressed. This only made his stomach turn, this was supposed to be the kid's happy day but it looked like his father ruined it, _'… stuck-up, arrogant, condensing, conceited, pig-headed prick.'_

Looking around, Ranma couldn't see **him** anywhere, the 14-year old prodigy of the Uchiha clan. _'Where's Itachi? I thought he was going to cancel his ANBU mission so he could come here?'_ He was really confused, he knew that Itachi cared for Sasuke just as much as he cared for Naruto, _'…so why isn't he here?'_

Walking up to the elder Uchiha, Ranma began to question him. "Fugaku-san, do you know where…" however, he was just ignored as both Uchihas walked past him as if he wasn't there, "… Itachi is?" he lamely finished. As he turned his head to glare, everyone could see that Ranma's eyes were beginning to glow red, as they usually did when he got mad.

Just before he could teach the Police-Captain a lesson in manners, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder and looked back to see his mother slowly shaking her head. "Don't do it Ranma-chan, he's not worth it…" she quietly said. Ranma was about to leave it alone when he heard the man speak, "Noriko-san, I suggest that you keep your guard-poodle under control, or else he might find himself being beaten and neutered by a superior breed of ninjas……"

That was it, the final breaking point! "You bastard!" Ranma yelled out, as he shot himself towards Fugaku, with his fist raised in the air. However just before his punch could make contact, a figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere and caught his fist…

"…Itachi!" Ranma exclaimed in shock.

"Itachi! What are you doing here, I thought I told you that your mission was your #1 priority!" Fugaku huffed, angry at the boy for disregarding his duties.

Itachi slowly lowered Ranma's fist, and just stared into his eyes as it began to lose its red glow. Still holding the boy's fist, he looked at his father, "I did go on my mission otou-san, and I finished it as quickly as possible so I could come see Sasuke, although…" he then looked around, "… I can see that I was a bit late."

Ranma ripped his hand out of Itachi's and walked back to his family. "Fugaku-san, you sure are lucky… you not only get saved today by my kaa-chan, but also by your son. But know this, if you ever piss me off again, nobody and I mean nobody will be able to stop me from tearing that tight ass of yours wide open." He finished his threat by making his eyes glow red again, but this time he gradually changed it to black.

As Fugaku was about to retort, a voice interrupted him. "That's enough Fugaku! Ranma! Both of you stand down, today is not the day to be fighting or making idle threats," Sarutobi calmly said as he walked up to Naruto, before rubbing his head and smiling. "If the two of you can't keep your tempers under control then I must ask you both to leave," then two ANBU behind him suddenly step forward to show that this was not just talk.

The Captain of the Police Force just walked away angrily, not believing that a 14-year old just humiliated him in front of everyone. _'This is far from over, you little brat,'_ he wordlessly threatened. Sasuke just held his brother's hand, and watched as their father stomped off before Itachi led him away as well. After a few steps, the older sibling suddenly stopped and turned his head, "Ranma-kun…" said person just glanced over his shoulder, "…I apologize on behalf of my father, and I hope that you can forgive him."

With that said Uchiha Itachi instantly vanished with his brother in hand.

* * *

Five months later, Ranma and Ibiki were sparring in the forest with Naruto sitting on a tree watching them. Ranma knew the 21-year old man from during the war against Kumogakure, which took place a year after the Kyuubi attack. He met him during a torture interrogation, where Ibiki gave the kid some pointers about torturing your opponent without the use of physical pain. It helped him out greatly in the long run, and in return he told the older man some of his more unique torture-methods to use against the really stubborn prisoners. Suffice to say, these two got along very well with each other. 

Just after Ibiki countered a kick from Ranma, he made the universal T-sign. "Time out, I think that's enough for today Woodwind," Ranma said as he wiped some sweat off and put his shirt back on, "It's time for Naruto's sparring session…" Ibiki just nodded then whistled sharply, in that moment two shadows jumped out of the forest to land right beside them. "…and what better sparring partners for my little brother than the hip-duo of Half-Face and the Punk Farmer-Boy," Ranma smirked as Naruto jumped down to faced Kakashi and Genma.

The moment Ranma lowered his arm and yelled out "Hajime (Begin)," Naruto bursted into action, throwing several shuriken at his opponent's feet which they easily dodged by hopping backwards several times. "Kakashi, I heard that you got beaten up by some angry women at the bathing house for peeking," Genma calmly said as he avoided a kunai and deflected a kick.

"Oh yeah, I was helping Jiraiya-sama with his 'research' when he used me as a martyr to escape," Kakashi, who was still reading his book, bent over backwards to avoid a flying dragon-kick and quickly straightened up to head-butt Naruto in the stomach as he passed over.

"Geez, I don't even know why you bothered to help him. It's not like he really needed your assistance," Genma quickly grabbed Naruto's punch and tossed him into the air.

"I know, but it gave me an excuse to look at beautiful naked women," Kakashi giggled perversely before both he and Genma jumped up to avoid a shower of shuriken and kunai.

Ranma and Ibiki just looked on as Naruto got madder and madder at being played around with so easily when the two Jounins were practically ignoring him! _'Well, what do you expect Naru-chan, there's no way for you to even touch Kakashi-sempai or Genma-san just yet,'_ Ranma thought as Naruto used the hand-seals for one of the high-level fire jutsus.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Skill: Grand Fireball Technique)!" Naruto then shot a giant fireball out of his mouth, unfortunately the attack just blew up right in his face. After a minute or two of silent shock, the 4 Jounins all gathered around and started to poke his unconscious body with sticks, "What in the world just happened?" Ibiki pondered.

"I think the Fireball detonated too early because of Naruto's lack of concentration," Kakashi replied. "What the hell? Is that really even possible?" Genma asked while looking at Ranma who just shrugged, and they just continued to poke and poke until they heard a voice scream out.

"Oh my god, Naruto!" They all turned around to see Noriko with a shocked expression, which slowly turned into an angry glare. "Oh wow, look at the time, see ya Ranma…" His three so-called friends stuttered in unison before quickly disappearing, leaving the poor boy all by his lonesome. _'Stinkin' cowards…'_ He thought as his mother stomped towards him, and grabbed him by his ear.

"You are in so much trouble when we get home, but right now we need to go to Naruto's school." Noriko used a healing-jutsu on the extra-crispy Naruto, then gently picked him up under her arm and pulled on Ranma's ear with her free hand. _'The academy, why there…?'_ Ranma's thoughts were cut off when his mother dragged him along, "Kaa-chan, please let go of my ear!" Of course, his painful pleas were just ignored.

Once at the school, Noriko put the now-conscious boy on the ground and dusted his clothes off, before he ran towards the playground where several of his friends were still playing ninja-tag. "So Jiji called us in to talk about Naru-chan's grades and behavior?" Ranma asked as they were walking through the halls, and saw his mother nod. "Yeah, I hope he didn't get into trouble or failed a class," she said with worry, then frowned as her son scoffed. Seeing her get irritated, he quickly hugged her shoulder and gently rubbed it up and down.

"Of course he didn't fail, I taught him everything he knows. I know for a fact that he can't fail academy-level stuff, especially not with his knowledge of ninjutsu and taijutsu…" He said confidently, but warily glanced at his mother's unhappy face.

They walked into the principal's office to see that only the Hokage was present along with several of his ANBU around the room. "Please, have a seat futari-dono (you two)," Sarutobi kindly told them, pointing to the seats in front of the desk.

Sitting down, Noriko fidgeted with her dress while looking nervously at Sandaime. Ranma just rolled his eyes at his mother's behavior, "Jiji, what the hell you'd call us here for?" he rudely said, before his mother lightly smacked him upside the head. "Behave yourself," she scolded before looking at the Sarutobi, "why did you call us here, Sarutobi-san?"

"Well it's about Naruto's ninjutsu…" He started to say, as Noriko looked at her eldest son through the corner of her eyes. _'Uh-oh…'_ Ranma thought as he caught her slight glance, _'I'm in big trouble aren't I?'_

Sarutobi then handed a piece of paper over to Noriko, "…as you can see from his report card Noriko, his grades are actually quite exceptional since his Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and Individual scores are very high for a beginner, while his Teamwork and Senjutsu still have room for improvement." Then he got up to look at Naruto through the window before continuing, "However there seems to be something wrong with the way he performs his ninjutsu-techniques. While he's able to start the jutsu just fine, they usually end up messing up somehow and backfiring on him."

Noriko then turned to Ranma with a twitch in her eyes and a frown etched on her face, "Ranma-chan, do you have any idea what problem Sarutobi-san is referring too?" Ranma waved his hands in front of him in an attempt to ward her off, then he began to fidget a little and laugh nervously. "Well actually, it's a funny story kaa-chan, you're gonna laugh and laugh…" he gulped seeing that she wasn't in a laughing mood, "…even though he knows how to **use** the jutsu, it seems that his concentration really sucks so most of the time his techniques usually end up hurting himself instead of his opponent." Before she could yell at him, an ANBU saved him at the last minute. Unfortunately he said the one thing that pretty much sealed his fate of being grounded for the next 5 months.

"Wow, did that kid just do a Housenka no Jutsu (Mythical Fire Flower Technique)? That's really impressive for a 6-year old," the ANBU said while looking out a window but then flinched as all the fireballs strangely did a 180° and fly right back at Naruto, hitting him in his butt as he tried to run away. "You might want to buy some ointment for that burn though, I don't think he'll be able to sit down for quite a while."

Hearing that, Noriko quickly jumped out of her seat and went to a window as well. By now the only one not looking outside was Ranma, who just slumped down further into his chair and slapped his forehead in exasperation, _'Naru-chan, you idiot……'_

They saw him try to perform a Doton-jutsu, but the earth-wave Naruto created somehow went the opposite way, straight towards his direction, and he ended up flying right into the sandbox next to Ino, Chouji, and Kiba, who just started to laugh and pour more sand on his head.

Sarutobi then looked at Ranma with a raised eyebrow and questioning eyes, but the boy was currently too busy banging his head on the desk, _'Oh come on, how in the world does a tidal-wave go backwards anyway!'_ He knew of this problem beforehand and still couldn't understand how his brother managed to screw up to do the impossible!

Then they looked on as he attempted a Fuuton-jutsu next, unfortunately the mini-tornado he made quickly spun out of control and soon his little body was flung into the air right towards the school. One of the ANBU waved at the boy when he squashed into the window, and blinked as he helplessly fell down into the bushes …

At this point, Noriko's hand was twitching immensely as she tried her very best not to glare at Ranma, who was currently hiding under the desk.

Shaking the leaves out of his hair, Naruto walked over to the giant water fountain in the middle of the playground and used the hand-seals for a Suiton-jutsu. He quickly found this to be a very bad idea, when the water hit the playground-walls and the small tsunami came rushing back towards him …

Everyone looking on in the principal's office just sweatdropped at the sight of Naruto being twisted and turned in the water before landing on top of the fountain. Ranma was slowly making his way towards the exit, when a shuriken suddenly imbedded itself in the wooden door and it slammed shut, he shivered when he heard his mother say, "You stay put, I'll deal with you later."

By now, they could see that Naruto was getting ticked-off as he stomped around in the water to use what-was-without-question his final jutsu of the day…… most likely because he knocked himself out with this one. For his final move, he tried to use a Raiton-jutsu, unfortunately for him he didn't know that water plus electricity equals big trouble. The moment the lightning sparked around his hands, his soaked body became a powerful conductor, and his tiny body was instantly lit up like a Christmas-Tree.

A couple of kids let out some impressed 'oohs' and 'aahs' at the pretty lightshow. After Naruto stopped glowing and twitching, all the little children around the playground gathered around and started to poke him with sticks to see if he was still alive. That is until Ino dragged his burnt body to the nurse's office for proper medical assistance, all the while grumbling about how dumb a person can possibly be.

Ranma was hoping that his mother wouldn't find him in the closet, but that hope instantly died when the door was ripped off the hinges and he felt his ear being pulled on again. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, mama let go! please let go! You're gonna rip my ear off!" Noriko just ignored her son's complaints and turned to the Hokage, "Sarutobi-san, thank you for letting us know of Naruto's current condition, I'll take care of it immediately," She then bowed before dragging her son out the room into the hallway.

"You're gonna tell me exactly how you trained your little brother, step by step," Noriko mumbled through her clenched teeth, as she pulled on his ear even harder. This is what she gets for leaving her children unsupervised.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow… ummm… well, you see……" Ranma began to tentatively tell her.

After a few minutes of silence, Sarutobi chuckled to himself as he heard Noriko scream out, "I don't believe this! You're an even worse teacher than your father!"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Author's Comments (R&R)

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Ages:

- Uzumaki Ranma: 12 (then 14).

- Hatake Kakashi: 18 (then 20).

- Maito Gai: 18 (then 20).

- Sarutobi Asuma: 17 (then 19).

- Yuuhi Kurenai: 17 (then 19).

- Morino Ibiki: 19 (then 21).

- Mitarashi Anko: 16 (then 18).

- Gekko Hayate: 15 (then 17).

- Shiranui Genma: 19 (then 21).

- Namiashi Raido: 21 (then 23).

- Yamashiro Aoba: 19 (then 21).

- Ebisu: 17 (then 19).

- Uzuki Yugao: 14 (then 16).

- Uchiha Itachi: 12 (then 14).

I know the ages are all off, but this is my story, so this is the way things are going to be done.

I'll tell you what's with Itachi in my story. At age 12, he joined the ANBU. At age 13, he was announced captain of the ANBU. At age 14, when Sasuke joined the academy, he quickly finished an important mission to see him.

I did it like this so I could keep Ranma and Itachi the same age, and keep their powers relatively lower than the Kage-Levels and the Legendary Three/Sand Siblings. Plus I got confused as to what was his real age, I went to different websites and they stated different things, so I changed it around to fit my story.

Nicknames:

- Kakashi: Half-Face (he always wears the mask).

- Gai: Mushroom-Head (his hair-style, I figured since Naruto already insults the eyebrows……)

- Asuma: Charcoal Bum (he has black lungs due to smoking all the time, and he's a lazy bum).

- Kurenai: Blushing Tomato (she always turns as red as a tomato around Ranma).

- Ibiki: Woodwind (his head… full of holes… resembles a musical instrument, reference to "With the Heart and Underwear of Fire" by Diamond Avatar).

- Anko: Snake-Goddess (do I really need to explain this one?).

- Hayate: Paleface Twinkletoes (he always looks sick, and he's a very good dancer. I kept getting crazy ideas of him being a ballet dancer because of his jutsu).

- Genma: Punk Farmer-Boy (he wears a bandana and chews on a piece of wood all the time).

- Raido: Sucker-Idiot (this is because he allowed himself to get ambushed – fanfiction only).

- Aoba: 4-Eyed Geek (I already explained this one, and yes I'm a 4-eyed geek as well).

- Ebisu: Loser-Pervert (he's a loser and a pervert).

- Yugao: Violent Tomboy (she's violent and acts like a man – fanfiction only).

I apologize for the lameness of the final scene, I wanted it to come off as funny but the more I read it, the more I felt it was boring and bland. Besides I only made up that scene to show everyone that when the time comes for him to get into Team 7, Naruto will not become some super Jounin-level ninja like his brother is. If anything he'll be more around Neji's and Lee's level of power, and he'll have a wide assortment of jutsus at his disposal. Regarding Kage Bunshin, he won't be able to create hundred of clones at this point because of his age and chakra-levels, at most it'll be like 3 clones only. The rest of his attacks were minor stuff, they'll obviously grow in strength and size later on.


	6. Friendship

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 6 – The End of a Friendship, the Beginning of a Journey **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Uzumaki Noriko, Hyuuga Natsumi, and Uchiha Haruko, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** Once again, the chapter says it all. In fact I don't even know why I bother with a summary.

* * *

"characters talking" 

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

For 5 entire months, Ranma spent Naruto's entire 2nd semester re-training him, under the strict supervision of their mother, on how to properly control his jutsus. His hard work finally paid off when the kid could perform most of his jutsus without hurting himself in the process, but that didn't mean he didn't make mistakes from time to time. After all he was only 7 now, and that meant he still had plenty of room for improvement.

As a consequence of spending every moment of his free time with Naruto, Ranma didn't have any time to train himself so he felt it would be best if his body get accustomed to his harsh training schedule again.

That's why he was currently by himself in the forest at the dead of night. Of course his worrisome mother had left a summoning scroll with him, which would instantly summon her if there was any trouble. _'So overprotective……'_ he wearily thought, as he felt his body move sluggishly, _'Ugh, I think that's it for today. Maybe I should have gone a little easy on myself after such a long break.'_

Ranma then started to walk away, moaning and groaning, when he suddenly heard a noise behind him. He quickly turned around, flinching in pain, to see that it was only a cute little bunny-rabbit. "Awww… how cute," he whispered as he got on his knees and went to pet the rabbit, then his eyes widened in shock and he quickly picked the animal up and ripped something off its stomach.

Holding it up, he could see that it was an "Exploding Tag?" he whispered before jumping up into the air to narrowly avoid several shurikens and kunai. He quickly put the bunny on the ground and crushed the tag, before he looked around and began to sniff the air. _'There!'_ he thought as he picked up a faint scent before hurling a shuriken in its direction, which quickly turned into hundreds of shuriken. "Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow-Clone Technique)!" Ranma yelled out as all the shuriken tore through the trees to reveal a masked shinobi with cuts on his arms and legs.

His eyes narrowed in anger as the mask fell off, "Uchiha Fugaku," Ranma quietly murmured. "I didn't think you'd be so heartless as to use a cute little bunny against me…" then he took out 8 kunai and started to juggle them in his hands, "…but then again I didn't think you'd be so stupid as to actually attack me either," and he quickly threw the kunai, one by one, towards his target.

Fugaku easily blocked and deflected the flying weapons with his own kunai, but he was caught unprepared for the abnormal speed that Ranma used to instantly close their distance and kick him into a tree. "You damn boy, I slowed bided my time for this one chance…" he growled out as he spit blood out of his mouth, "…I still haven't forgotten that humiliation you dealt to me nearly a year ago."

Ranma just rolled his eyes, _'This guy needs some serious therapy, what kind of freak holds a grudge for something so stupid for so long,'_  (crack shot at all the psychos of the anime world, Ryoga, Mousse, Sasuke, etc.)

Fugaku slowly got up and concentrated his chakra into his eyes, making his pupils become blood-red and causing 3 'tomoe' to grow within them. Seeing that the old man had activated the Sharingan, Ranma knew he was in trouble. _'Oh geez, I don't have much chakra left in me to go all-out…'_ He wearily thought and discreetly looked around, _'… and I need to go all-out to even stand a chance, so I'm just gonna need to do something to even the odds.'_

His planning was cut off short, when a giant fireball came shooting towards him. He tried to dodge it but since his body was still in pain after his training, he wasn't able to get out of the way in time. His body skidded across the ground where he made a giant crater when he stopped, moaning in pain he weakly opened his eyes to see Fugaku making hand-seals once more.

Just then, he quickly rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a large barrage of fireballs at the last second. Just when he thought he was safe, they suddenly just turned around and went after him again. _'What the hell…!'_ Ranma thought in shock, as he was chased around by the apparently magic fireballs, _'… Housenka (Mythical Fire Flower) isn't supposed to follow you around!'_

He glanced over to Fugaku to see him holding up a single hand-seal, and concentrating his chakra. "No way, you know how to make these things chase someone around!" Ranma cried out, however as he was nearing the trees, he was surprised and confused to see one of the fireballs suddenly rear off to hit a large bear. _'I don't get it, why did that one just…?'_ Then he finally realized it, _'Duh, fire equals heat, these things are heat-seekers!'_

Fugaku was stunned to see Ranma stop in the middle of the forest to stand completely still, _'Why did he stop…?'_ then he saw the boy close his eyes, and clasp his hands together. _'What's he doing?'_ His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when he had to duck under his own fireballs, _'How!'_ Having no other choice, he quickly canceled his heat-seeking technique, and leaped over the fireballs which burnt themselves out on the ground.

'_That was close……'_ His relief was cut short when he was roughly thrown into the trees by a strong burst of wind and snow… snow! Fugaku looked over to see Ranma with his sword out, smirking arrogantly, and breathing hard and heavily. "How in the world did you create snow in this kind of environment!" He asked with a sneer, there was no way this boy could be that talented.

"Oh that's my secret, you don't need to worry about that," Ranma mumbled out in exhaustion. In reality, it was the 'Blizzard,' an ice-based kenjutsu technique taught to him by his mother. By cooling the water molecules in his body and of the area around him, he managed to lower the temperature to freezing degrees. Then as he saw Fugaku get distracted by his own attack, which went to seek out a new heat-source, he quickly used the invisible swing, a swing so fast that no human eyes can see it and created the 'Blizzard' from the cold-atmosphere around him.

This was all thanks to the rigorous training and teachings that his mother instilled in him. _'Mama… l-looks like… I-I'm not comin' home tonight…'_ Ranma tiredly thought as everything went dark, but as he was falling, his hand accidentally ripped open a certain scroll on the tree stump……

Fugaku saw his chance when the boy was fainted, but grimaced at how much pain his body was in. "I can't believe this brat actually managed to hurt me," he mumbled in anger, then he took a shaky step back as thick smoke covered the area in front of him. _'Now what…?'_ As the smoke was clearing, he knew he was in big trouble when he recognized the figure standing there with her sword in hand, _'…… oh crap!'_

Uzumaki Noriko was using her own variation of her son's glowing-eyes, but hers could be considered even scarier since it was partnered by her dark-red aura of womanly rage from hell. "You damn bastard…" She growled out before she unsheathed her sword and sent a very, very, VERY big fire-scythe towards the wide-eyed, shaking man.

Fugaku could only look on pathetically as the attack came closer and closer, he couldn't even move due to the immense killing intent of the woman before him. _'This is going to hurt…'_ was the man's last thought before he felt the worst pain of his life and almost immediately lost consciousness.

She glared at the convulsing burnt body of the 'man' in front of her before spitting on him, then knelt down by her son and gently cradled his head in her arms. "Oh sweetie… mama's so proud of you," She kissed his forehead before teleporting them home.

High above in the trees stood a lone figure watching the scene from the very beginning. "Ranma-kun," the triple-tomoe of the Sharingan spinning around in his pupils……

* * *

3 days later, Ranma and Noriko had decided to keep this whole situation under wrap. Actually it was more like Ranma wanted to keep silent, while Noriko wanted to prosecute the man and make his life a living hell by flushing his reputation down the toilet. Ranma immediately protested to telling anyone about this, especially the Hokage, because he didn't want Uchiha Mikoto (Sasuke's mother) finding out about this. As his mother's best friend, he didn't want her to suffer the consequences of her husband's stupid actions. 

After spending hours arguing about this matter, Noriko finally conceded to her child's hush-hush plan if only because it'll keep Mikoto happy and clueless about this whole ugly mess…… That, and Ranma promised her that he wouldn't stop her from beating the guy to near-death if he even looked at them the wrong way again.

'_Hehehehehe, you're gonna suffer. If I ever catch you even eye-balling my baby again, I'm gonna take my sword and shove it right up your… then I'm gonna twist and turn, and ram it down your… then I'm stab you a hundred million times in the…'_ These were the sadistic thoughts running through Noriko's mind as she and Ranma were doing some late-spring cleaning.

Laughing nervously, he sweatdropped at the sight of his mother twisting and crumpling the duster into a tiny ball, then slowly moved away to clean behind the television. _'Geez, maybe I shouldn't have promised her she could beat the poor guy up…'_ Ranma thought to himself.

Even after the murder attempt, Ranma didn't bare any type of grudge towards the elder Uchiha because he just wasn't worth the aggravation. After all, plenty of people wanted him gone due to his actions over the years, and one more wasn't going to make a difference. Besides, if he were to waste his time worrying about every single person in the world who wanted to kill him, then he'd probably become a decrepit old man in a few days.

Just then a knock was heard at the front door, so Noriko went over to answer it. She was surprised to see Sandaime Hokage and Uchiha Mikoto standing there, "Sarutobi-san, Miko-chan, come in please," she invited them in and led them over to the living room. Ranma, seeing that they had guests, went into the kitchen to get some food and refreshments.

After everyone was comfortably settled down, and Ranma had set up the snacks and drinks, Noriko took a quick glance at Mikoto who seemed to have been crying a lot, if the puffy eyes and tear marks were any indication. She hoped it wasn't because of her husband's injuries that she had inflicted. She was starting to feel guilty at the thought of her being the reason that her best friend was sad, even if the lousy bum deserved it for bullying her baby around. _'Hell yeah!'_ she fiercely thought, and in the depths of her mind, a chibi-Noriko was pumping her arm while laughing insanely.

"Nori-chan, have you seen my husband lately? He hasn't been home for several days now," Mikoto desperately asked, bringing her out of her fantasy. "What?" Noriko was clearly startled by the question, "Tell me everything that happened, Miko-chan." But she was caught off-guard when the woman jumped into her arms and started to cry into her chest. The only thing she could do was wrap her arms around the hysterical woman, and gently rock her back and forth while rubbing her back.

She looked at Ranma, who seemed to be just as confused as her. "Ano, Jiji? What's going on?" Ranma curiously asked, he had a bad feeling about this……

"Fugaku's been missing for nearly 3 days now, and we were wondering if you knew anything about his whereabouts," Sarutobi calmly responded, "Not that we're accusing you of anything, but some of the villagers said they saw him walking around your family's training grounds in the forest." Meeting the eyes of his mother, they knew that they couldn't tell them the truth especially not when this poor woman had already been through so much. "Yes, we did see him a couple of days ago when we were training together, but he told us he was just taking a late-night stroll and was about to leave for home," Noriko half-lied with a straight face, inwardly cursing at this whole situation.

"I see…" Sarutobi sighed before he got up, "If you hear any news from Fugaku again, please be sure to tell us." Noriko nodded and help the distraught woman to her feet, she hugged her shoulders as they walked to the door while reassuring her that everything would be alright. As Ranma was politely opening the door for their guests to leave, Sarutobi took a good look at the boy and raised an eyebrow at what he saw.

"Ranma, you should go back to bed and rest, and try not to go overboard in training from now…" eyeing his bandaged body, "…it won't do to purposely injure yourself like that," Sarutobi gently reprimanded. Ranma just sheepily nodded, before breathing a sigh of relief when they left, then he walked back into the living room to clear the table.

Realizing that she was alone, Noriko walked into the kitchen to see her son washing the dishes. "What was that all about, kaa-chan?" Ranma wondered, "What do you think happened to Fugaku-san?"

Hearing no response, he looked over at his mother just sitting at the table with her arm crossed, just starring down with a serious expression. "Mama, is everything alright?" Hearing her son speak again brought her back to reality, and Noriko gently smiled at him before getting out of her chair. "Of course it is, Ranma-chan. I think it's about time for some lunch now since you're probably hungry after all that cleaning." Then she began to get some bread for sandwiches…

A little while later as she and her son were eating lunch, Noriko inwardly frowned as a nagging suspicion kept telling her that everything was **not** alright. Fugaku should have been able to stagger home that same night despite her powerful attack, so where in Konoha was he? _'Something big is about to happen…'_ she thought as she glanced at her grinning son, who was happily gobbling down his food, _'… and I'm afraid that it's going to take my baby away.'

* * *

_

Uchiha Mikoto slowly walked into her home, still crying a little and sniffing. She just couldn't understand what had happened to her husband, it's like he just vanished into thin air. He's never been gone this long without trying to contact her, just then she noticed a trail of blood on the floor leading all the way into the living room. Cautiously, she followed it until she came upon Fugaku who was tied up to a chair, and had bruises and deep cuts covering his entire body,.

"Anata!" Mikoto quickly rushed over to untie him. When she finally got the knot loose, she was horrified to see that her husband was long-dead since his organs had been cleanly cut out through his back. As she was about to run out of the house to get help, a kunai was thrown at her feet, forcing her to stop. Reaching into her dress, she took out a dagger and carefully looked around, but she couldn't see anyone else in the house. But just then, she saw drops of blood fall onto the floor, and looked up to see…… her eldest son on the ceiling, gazing at her with the Sharingan. "Itachi, what's going on?" She nervously whispered.

Sensing a presence behind her, she quickly turned around and deflected a sword slash with her dagger. Looking around, she was surprised to see that she was surrounded by Kage-Bunshins (Shadow-Clones) of Itachi. _'Impossible, in less than a blink of an eye the entire room was filled with clones,'_ Mikoto thought in shock, as she activated her Sharingan and slit the throat of the nearest clone, she used the smoke of the 'poof' to quickly use Goukakyuu (Grand Fireball), and destroyed the clones blocking the exit.

As she was too busy trying to escape, she forgot all about her real son, who was silently watching her from the ceiling. Mikoto soon remembered this fact when several needles hit her in the leg sending her roughly to the floor. "Gyah!" she cried out, but still tried to drag herself towards the door regardless of the pain. However, she didn't get far as Itachi dropped down to the floor and landed in front of her.

"Okaa-san, I think it's about time we had a family meeting about the future…" Mikoto heard him say before she felt a sharp pain through her back and stomach, and realized that Itachi had just impaled her with his katana, "… unfortunately, it saddens me to say that the future does not involve you." Tears were running down her face as she couldn't believe this was happening, _'Itachi……'_ everything soon became dark as he brought his sword down on her head.

Later that night, Ranma snuck out of his house while his mother and brother slept. Like Noriko, Ranma had a suspicious feeling that something was going to happen… no, that something already had happened. This was the reason why he was currently standing in front of the entrance of the Uchiha compound, to get some answers. As he was about to open the twin-doors, he suddenly stopped when he got a strange chill down his spine.

Letting go of the handle, Ranma jumped over the wall and looked at the inside of the doors to see that they were rigged with explosive-tags, _'A trap, but why?'_ he confusedly thought, as he ripped the tags off to make sure no one activated them.

As he walked down the eerily empty and silent street, he felt himself getting colder and colder as the path seemed to get darker. _'Man, what is this, it's like something out of a horror movie…'_ the rest of his thoughts were utterly forgotten when he picked up the scent of blood, and turned the corner to see several people lying on the floor. He quickly checked all the bodies to confirm that they were all dead. He then ran to other parts of the compound only to come across more and more deceased people, _'Oh god, who could have done all this,'_ he despairingly thought, just then he heard a tiny whimper in one of the shops.

Rushing right in, Ranma saw a small platinum-haired girl breathing shallowly with a large wound on her stomach. He knelt down and gently put his hands on her wound and began to heal it using a medical jutsu. After making sure that the gash was completely gone he gently picked her up, _'I have to get her to the hospital, then alert Jiji about this…'_

As he left the shop, Ranma saw a shadow run down the streets near the next block. He quickly chased after it and was surprised to see a familiar looking 15-year old, with bloodied clothes, jump over the wall.

"Itachi!" Ranma whispered in shock, "I don't have much time…" Just then, he used Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) to instantly teleport himself and the girl to an empty room in the hospital. After making sure that the girl was comfortably tucked in and hooked up to the hospital machines, he used the same jutsu to teleport himself near the gates of Konoha.

After a few seconds of waiting, Ranma's gamble paid off when he saw a shadow quickly make its way towards him. He threw some shuriken at the faint figure of Itachi, only to have them deflected back with a downward-slash of his sword. Ducking beneath the flying projectiles, Ranma looked up to see Itachi stop in front of him. "I'm surprised to see you here, Ranma-kun," he calmly stated as he sheathed his blade, "If I had known you were going to come, I would have set up some more high-level traps."

"Itachi, what the hell have you done!" he shouted, "Please tell me this was all a big mistake, tell me that you weren't the one who killed all those people!" The only thing Itachi did was close his eyes and sadly sigh, then he quickly kicked some dirt into Ranma's face and charged the momentarily blinded ninja. But the instant the dirt hit his eyes, Ranma dropped something onto the floor that created a smokescreen around him. _'Smoke-bomb…'_ Itachi thought before quickly flipped backwards to avoid a Katon-jutsu.

Landing on his feet, Itachi could see Ranma rubbing his eyes trying to get his vision back. "No, it wasn't a mistake. I grew tired of them Ranma-kun," he told the twitching boy, "Their arrogance, their superiority complex, their mere existence…"

"Itachi…" Ranma growled out, but he just continued to talk. "Those arrogant fools, with their pompous attitudes, only cared about themselves and treated everyone else like trash," Itachi then started to walk forward, "So I decided to do the world a favor and get rid of those petty insects once and for all."

He stopped right in front of a glaring Ranma, "Tell me, just what would you have done?" Itachi asked.

"I would have explained to them my feelings, tell them that it was time for their ways to change…" Ranma was cut off by the sounds of laughter. "Oh god, I'm sorry but that's just hilarious," Itachi ceased his laughing and settled on a smirk, "There are people in this world who will never change, no matter what, and the Uchiha Clan were some of those people."

"That's not true, everyone can change!" Ranma yelled out, "You just have to give them a chance!"

Itachi just slowly shook his hand, "That kind of naïve thinking shouldn't exist in a shinobi. Even people as influential as the Hokage don't have the power to change everyone."

Ranma just gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, "How the hell would you know that, you didn't even try…" he was cut off once again as Itachi suddenly attacked him with a front kick, which he quickly caught. "That naivety, I will destroy it right now," Itachi's body suddenly 'poofed' into smoke as a sword was stabbed through the clone, aimed right for Ranma's heart.

Ranma immediately jumped backwards to avoid the sword thrust, and because of this he was unable to dodge the huge fire-dragon which suddenly appeared in front of him. Seeing that he had no way of escaping, Ranma threw several kunai with explosive tags attached, which managed to destroy a good part of the dragon's body. Unfortunately this set off a chain explosion which sent the poor ninja crashing across the ground, making a very-deep canal in its path. As soon as his body came to a stop, Ranma was forced to quickly jump to the side to avoid a shower of kunai and shuriken.

Seeing an opportunity, Itachi quickly took advantage, but Ranma simply parried the punch with his right hand then jumped onto his left hand to kick Itachi in the side of his head. As the Uchiha prodigy was stunned from the blow, Ranma quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed him in the stomach. Then as the boy was bent over from the pain, Ranma jumped up to strongly knee him right in the nose, while still in mid-air he performed a spin kick which hit the injured boy right in the chest and sent him straight into the trees.

"Doton: Retsudo Tenshou (Earth Skill: Splitting Earth Force)!" Ranma slammed his hand on the floor, causing several large fissures to open up straight towards Itachi. The power of the attack completely destroyed the earth and forest.

Just then a figure swiftly jumped through the smoke and debris, high into the sky. Ranma immediately started another set of hand-seals when he saw Itachi do the same, then at the same time they shot off a large fireball and waterball from their mouths.

"Katon: Goukakyuu (Fire Skill: Grand Fireball)!" Itachi yelled out.

"Suiton: Suitaihou (Water Skill: Water Cannonball)!" Ranma screamed.

The two attacks collided and created a huge explosion which sent both fighters flying across the ground, and left a thick fog to surround the forest. "Ugh…" Ranma groaned in pain, then slowly got up and perk his ears to pick up any sounds of movement. He soon heard something rustle and ran towards it, there he saw Itachi getting up and jumped forward to elbow him right in his cheek. Then he kicked him right in his chin and sent him straight into the air.

Ranma jumped up, right past him, and flipped around to stop his momentum then he rammed both of his feet into Itachi's stomach. "Ninpou: Chou Reppa Dan (Ninja Skill: Super Violent Rending Bullet)!" He rapidly spun around and forced his body to plummet towards the ground while his feet was still firmly planted in Itachi. When they landed, the impact and force of the downward spiral created a giant crater and the ground around them broke apart into giant pieces.

As soon as the dust cleared, Ranma pulled the horribly-beaten boy out of the ground and picked him up by the throat with one hand. "Give it up Itachi, you never were strong enough to beat me," he growled into his face, "By order of Konoha's law, you are hereby under…" He trailed off when Itachi started to quietly chuckle which became full-blown laughter, "What the hell's so funny!"

"Your words amuse me. You can't seem to grasp the fact that strength has absolutely no meaning to me," Itachi weakly said, before he quickly lifted up his head to look into Ranma's eyes with… what the hell!

In that instant, Ranma found himself in a pitch-black area, "Where am I?" he whispered to himself, as he looked around. Just then he felt a pain in his shoulder and turned his head to see that Itachi had stabbed him, he felt another pain in his leg and saw another Itachi in front of him. Second after second, he watched as multiple Itachi came out of nowhere to stab him in some part of his body.

"This is the world of Tsukiyomi made possible by the Mangekyou Sharingan," Itachi's voice boomed over the screams as Ranma continued to be tortured. "I am the ruler here, I am the absolute master, within this world I can control and manipulate everything. Nobody can escape here without my consent, so that means…" A pair of large Sharingan eyes materialized in front of the mutilated boy, "…you are going to die here and now."

'_Oh god…'_ Ranma painfully thought, _'Is something like this really possible!'_ He screamed as another sword impaled his body, _'Tou-san, Tou-san, please help me…'_ He silently begged, just then images of his mother, brother, and friends flashed in his mind, _'That's right, I can't die like this! I still have people waiting for me back home, so… Itachi…… kisama (rude way of saying 'you') '_

He gritted his teeth and concentrated all his chakra around his body, "… GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!" He shouted to the heavens, as the world around him slowly began to crack under the pressure of his energy before shattering like glass.

Ranma dropped down to his hands and knees, panting in exhaustion, and wearily glanced around to see that he was back in the forest. He heard a moan in front of him and saw the Uchiha prodigy flat on his back. "How? Nobody should be able…" Itachi mumbled out in disbelief, "How could you have escaped from Tsukiyomi?" He tried to get up only to collapse back to the ground, "… It's just not possible… wha… what are you?"

"I…" Ranma started to say as he stumbled to his feet, "I am… Uzumaki Ranma, a Konohagakure-Shinobi, and you… you're under arrest." Itachi just weakly smiled, "Konoha-Ninja, huh? You must truly love this village," then he started to softly laugh, "But you got yet another thing wrong Ranma-kun, I'm not going anywhere with **you**……"

As soon as Itachi said that, a giant shark-like man with a wrapped-up sword suddenly appeared and picked him up over his shoulder, before quickly disappearing again. Ranma could only look at what just transpired in silent shock, _'Who the hell was that!'_ then everything became blurry, and he felt himself hit the ground before everything became dark again.

* * *

Ranma opened his eyes to once again see nothing but white, _'Oh geez, how many times am I going to wake up in this freakin' room,'_ he irritably thought. Just then Sarutobi walked into the room, and smiled at seeing the boy was finally awake. "Well it's about time, you gave everyone quite a scare. These days, it's not quite often we get to see you beat up, Mr. Super Ninja," he amusingly joked as he sat by the bed. 

"Ha, ha, very funny Jiji…" Ranma then sat up, and scratched his head, "How long was I out for this time?" The old man just rubbed his chin and looked towards the ceiling, before he finally said, "I'd say close to about two weeks now."

Ranma's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, "Two weeks!" He slowly got up and started to get the tension out of his muscles by stretching, "Shit, I can't believe I was knocked out for that long." Then he got a nervous expression when he notice Sarutobi's silent look of 'tell me what happened.'

"Fine, fine… I'll tell you exactly what happened. Don't get your diapers in a bunch Jiji," After a few minutes of explaining, Sarutobi lean into his chair and deeply sighed. "I see, so Itachi really was responsible for the massacre," he whispered, "What's even more troubling is the Mangekyou Sharingan…"

"What is this Mangekyou thingy?" Ranma questioned as he sat back down on the bed, "It's like he created his own little universe using those eyes."

Sarutobi started to pace around the room as he explained, "The Mangekyou Sharingan is the final evolution for the Uchiha Clan. Those eyes apparently have the power to manipulate the fabric of time and space, it's said to be the greatest doujutsu-technique ever, even though the Hyuuga would argue that. There's said to be certain requirements in order to achieve these eyes, but even I don't know what that is."

He sat on the bed next to Ranma and put his arm over his shoulder. "I'm rather surprised you were able to escape from the effects of the Mangekyou. But then again, your strength hardly surprises me anymore," Sarutobi told the boy, obviously proud of him.

Ranma shook his head, then got back up and walked towards the windows. "That's not true Jiji. If Itachi had been at full power, then I'd be long dead by now. Just think about it, he spent the entire night fighting against the entire Uchiha Clan and even then he still had enough power left to fight evenly against me," He slowly turned back to Sarutobi with tears in his eyes, obviously distraught about his failure. "I wasn't… able to stop him, even with all my strength," He hugged the old man as he cried into his shoulders.

After a few minutes, Ranma looked Sarutobi with determined eyes. "Jiji, I have a favor to ask of you…" he whispered, "First, I need to know if that Uchiha girl I put in the hospital room is okay."

Ranma smiled when he nodded, "That's good, in that case I'd like to request that I leave the village with that girl to train outside of Konoha."

Sarutobi just sadly sighed when he heard this, "Are you going after Itachi, Ranma?"

Ranma became silent for a few seconds, before slowly shaking his head. "No, not yet anyway. Right now, I just want to get that girl away from the village as soon as possible, if Itachi finds out about her existence then he might come back to kill her." He turned back to the Hokage with determined eyes, "But Jiji, if I do encounter him on this journey then I'm not going to run away or hold back. I ever meet that man again… I'm going to kick his ass."

He turned back to the window and stared into the sky, "It's my duty to bring him back. After all, he is my best friend……"

* * *

The next day, he was spending some 'quality' time with his mother and brother. "I can't believe you're going to be away for…" Noriko started to say, before she turned to her son who was training with Naruto, "How long are you going to be gone for, Ranma-chan?" 

Grabbing Naruto's foot as he tried to kick him, Ranma spun his brother around before letting him go, sending him high into the sky. "I have no idea, kaa-chan…" he then cart-wheeled to the side to avoid some kunai, "I don't want you to worry about me though. I'm a big boy now, besides I'm gonna be sending letters and presents every chance I get."

Ranma then kicked upwards to deflect a punch from Naruto, then quickly performed a spin-kick with the same leg to constrict the kid's neck in between the back of his knee. He slowly squeezed his leg tighter forcing the young blonde into dreamland in a matter of seconds. Ranma let go and patted his unconscious brother on the head, "Better luck next time Chibi…" He was cut off when a wind-blast hit him in the back, sending him face-first into the floor.

He pulled himself out of the ground and shook his head to get rid of the dirt, then looked back to see his mother with her sword out, slowly walking towards him. "Well, if this is going to be the last week that I'm going to be able to spend with my eldest child…" Noriko mumbled through clenched teeth, "…then I might as give you the ass-kicking of the century right now to make sure you always remember how strong your mama is." She slashed the air in an X-pattern, which tore open a hole in the air and soon several firebirds flew out of it, heading straight towards him.

Ranma just looked blankly at the oncoming birds, _'Oh damn… this is gonna to hurt…'

* * *

_

A few hours later, he was limping through the forest while rubbing his neck because of the beating his mother gave him, _'She's never gone that hard in a spar before, I guess she must be really mad about me leaving.'_ He soon came upon Kakashi and Gai in yet another of their famous duels, this time they were trying to see how many leaves they can catch with their left hand and with their eyes closed in the span of 1 minute.

"Aha! 78 leaves, beat that Kakashi!" Gai yelled out, completely positive of his victory.

Kakashi just looked up from his spot of the ground, before pointing to a large pile of leaves in front of him. "I caught 214…" He then saw Gai's eyes get really wide and his jaw drop to the ground, "Guess I win, huh?" Seeing that Gai was going to get started on his self-imposed rule stipulation, Ranma quickly made his presence known.

"Yo, Sempai-tachi," The two jounins turned around to see Ranma walk through the bushes. "Oi, Ranma-kun, are you sure you should be out of bed right now?" Gai asked in worry, "After all you did take quite a beating a couple of weeks back." Ranma just waved that suggestion away, "No, I'm okay now but I got a favor to ask of you two…"

A couple of minutes later, he explained the situation, "So, you're going after Itachi…" Kakashi saw Ranma shake his head and quickly cut off his denial, "Yeah, yeah, you just want to get that girl out of here, to travel the world and get stronger. But face it, everyone's gonna know your real reason for wanting to leave."

"You want us to train Naruto while you're gone?" Gai repeated the boy's request, "Well, I suppose I'll do it, after all it's the least I can do for you. Besides he needs someone to properly train him since Noriko-san is always busy and all."

Then the two turned their heads to the silver-haired man, "Well…How 'bout you, Half-Face?" Ranma asked him. "Fine, fine, I'll do it," Kakashi grumbled under his breath, "But you definitely owe me."

Ranma just grinned as he took out three books from inside his jacket, "These are the never-before released 2nd and 3rd volumes of Icha-Icha Paradise, autographed by the author himself. I have no idea how, but you seem to have gotten an autographed 1st volume already…" It was strange because Jiraiya-sama never put his name on the Icha-Icha novels, in fear that a woman would recognize it and search him out for some divine female retribution.

"…In any case, this makes us even, right?" The wide-eyed pervert just slowly reached for the bountiful treasures but they were pulled away, "Half-Face, I expect you to actually teach Naru-chan in Ninjutsu and not just read your porn, got me?" Kakashi just quickly nodded, before Ranma tossed him the books and walked away.

Once reaching the bushes, he turned around and saw that Kakashi was literally drooling over the novels, while Gai was doing 10,000 upside-down push-ups with his thumbs and index fingers. He palmed his face in exasperation, _'Oh geez, I hope I'm doing the right thing by leaving Naru-chan with those two. If I come back and find the kid reading porn, being 3 hours late to everything, wearing Green-spandex, and yelling out absurd proclamations and self-imposed rules, I'm going to torture them.'_ He took one last look at the morons before going home, _'Oh yeah…… I got the perfect torture methods in mind too.'

* * *

_

The next day, Ranma went in search for the rest of his friends. By this time, news has spread about the massacre of the Uchihas at the hand of Itachi, and the fact that Ranma was leaving to go after him.

He ignored all the hushed whispers around him and entered the shinobi bar that his friends liked to hang out at. He looked around and saw nearly all of them sitting at the corner table. Walking over, Ranma greeted them before sitting down and saw that everyone was looking at him rather expectedly. "What?" he irritably snapped, "I suppose Kakashi-sempai and Gai-san already told you. It's true, I'm leaving next week."

Upon hearing this, everyone became silent and just stared at the table. "When are you coming back?" Asuma asked. Ranma just sighed and put his feet on the table before leaning his chair on its two back legs, "I'm not really sure, but I am going to travel all the Hidden Villages throughout the world. So I'm guessing around a few years."

Raido slammed his hand on the table, "You got to be kidding me! Because of some heartless bastard, you're leaving us for that long!" he angrily shouted. Everyone at the table just nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with his statement. "Won't you please reconsider Ranma-kun?" Kurenai pleaded.

Ranma just slowly shook his head, and looked at the ceiling. "It was my responsibility to bring him in… and I failed. So it's up to me to finish what I started," As he was saying this, tears started running down his cheek. "I don't want to leave… I just wanna stay home with my mother, my brother, and all you guys…" Then he lowered his head and looked at each person with tears in his eyes, "… but you gotta understand, it's my duty as a Konohagakure-Shinobi to bring him in to justice. Even if I have to sacrifice my life to do it."

Kurenai hugged him gently, and let him cry on her chest. The others slowly got up and left the bar, obviously wondering about what's going to happen now… they had some serious thinking to do. "Kurenai-chan, do you think I'm wrong? Do you think I'm being selfish?" Ranma mumbled as he raised his head to look her in the eyes.

The only thing she did was slowly bring her lips to his, and gently kissed him. After a few minutes, she let go and shook her head, "No, I don't think you're being selfish. It takes a brave man to do something as hard as leaving the people he loves for any reason." The moment she finished talking, Ranma roughly kissed her again and pull her body onto his lap……

The next morning, he woke up and saw a nude Kurenai in the bed next to him. He kissed her softly on the lips once more before getting up and putting his clothes back on. Then he cooked her a heavy breakfast and wrote a note thanking her for everything, then put them on the night-table next to her.

Ranma left her apartment building and walked straight towards the forest to do some light exercises. _'Oh geez, I can't believe I did **that** last night with Kurenai,'_ he silently berated himself, _'Not to mention, what's Anko-chan going to do to me when she finds out.'_ He shuddered as he imagined some of the torture treatments she'd use on him. He prayed to the heavens that she wouldn't find out, at least until after he left.

Unfortunately, the heavens were against him that day as several snakes came rushing towards him. He rolled to the side, avoiding them at the last second and looked back to see one very pissed-off kunoichi stomping towards him. "Do you know **lover**..." Anko emphasized the word, "…what I do to men who break my heart?" Ranma gulped when he saw her take out a sword, and slowly nodded his head.

She walked right up to his face and scowled, "Then tell me why I saw you and Kurenai kissing and fondling each other last night." She then pointed the sword right at his throat, "And you better give me a very good explanation or else you'll be sleeping with the demons of hell tonight."

Ranma put his hand on the blunt side of the blade and nervously pushed it down. "Anko-chan…" he softly said, as he moved over to hug her but she just backed away, "…I don't know what the hell happened." He then sat on the ground and clutched his head, "Everything's a mess right now, I don't even know what the hell I'm doing anymore."

He got on his knees and shuffled over to Anko to hug her around her waist, "I still know one thing though, I would never do anything to deliberately hurt you," He slowly got up and held her body close to his, "I… I love you, Anko" He whispered into her ear, before gently kissing her, "But I just can't deny that I have feelings for Kurenai as well."

Anko just sighed and leaned her head onto his chest. After an half an hour of just holding each other, she had time to think and finally came to a decision. "Goddamn…" she sighed out as she leered at his chiseled body, "I never thought I willingly join a harem in my life."

Ranma just looked away confused, "Say what?" He managed to get out before Anko tackled him to the ground and ripped his shirt off with a wicked grin on her face. "Hehehe, you know I regret not getting the first bite…" She stopped to kiss and lick his chest, "…but I'll be damned if I don't get a piece of the cake too."

The next few hours were rather… intense, and weird, and definitely freaky. When it was all said and done, Ranma slowly staggered out of the forest, wearily putting his clothes back on, but he only managed to get his pants on before he fainted on the ground.

Soon after, Anko cheerfully wobbled out and pulled him up to kiss him again. "You are one very lucky man, Ran-chan. Not too many women would be so kind as to forgive you like I did," she told him with a large grin, before letting him fall back onto the ground and stretched her aching back. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to track down Kurenai and trade notes with her. It might be best if we work out a time schedule too," Then she started heading towards the town, but not before blowing a kiss to her unconscious lover.

* * *

A week later, mother and son were fiercely hugging each other in front of the Gates of Konoha. "Oh honey, be careful okay? Be sure to eat properly, no junk food after 6. Always make sure to change your underwear everyday, and wash your hair at least once every two days…" Noriko continued to talk and Ranma just turned red in embarrassment as his two girlfriends started snickering. 

"Mama! I'm going to be fine, it's not the first time I've gone away," He gently held onto his mother for a few more seconds before letting her go and kissing her on the cheek. "Don't worry, I told you before I'll be back as soon as possible, plus I'll always keep in contact," Ranma then wiped some tears off of her face. "Quit crying so much, a woman as beautiful as you shouldn't be sad," He quietly told her as she hugged him again, crying even harder now.

"Nii-chan, make sure you get me lots of cool gifts okay?" Naruto mumbled into his brother's leg as he tightly held it, Ranma just smiled and rubbed his head. "Of course Naru-chan, and when I get back I better hear that you've become Hokage or else I'm gonna be very angry," Naruto just lifted his head and nodded while sniffling.

Ranma walked over to Anko and Kurenai and kissed them both before looking around. "I guess everyone else isn't coming, huh?" He softly asked, "I don't blame them, I wouldn't want to see a friend leave home for such a selfish reason either."

Just then smoke enveloped the area in front of them. "Ora, ora, is that how little you think of us Ranma!" Genma yelled out, as he and all the others made their grand appearance, "After all, don't you know it's cooler to be fashionably late. That way you make a wicked last-minute entrance and surprise everyone."

"Minna (Everyone)!" Ranma yelled out as he ran towards them, "I didn't think you were really going to come, especially since I haven't seen you guys since last week."

"Oh that…" Aoba started to say before everyone took out gifts, "… We were just thinking about what to give you for your trip. We came up with this plan so that you'd always have a piece of us with you, that way you'd never forget your friends or home."

"Although, we can see that Anko and Kurenai have been giving their 'special gifts' to you all week long, you lucky brat," Asuma jokingly said, while jabbing a red-faced Ranma. Kurenai just blushed as well, while Anko just grinned and giggled perversely.

"Maa, how troublesome, let's just get this over with…" Kakashi said as he walked over to Ranma and he gave him a neatly-wrapped package. "It's my old ANBU-uniform. I figured you could wear it if you're ever in a need of a disguise," He then took out a ninja-sword and toss it into his arms, "That's the ANBU-assigned ninjato (sword), the outfit just wouldn't be complete without it."

Kakashi just scratched the back of his head and looked away, "I'm not very good with goodbyes…" he quietly said as he held out his hand, "…So I guess this is just 'see you later,' right?" Ranma just nodded as he shook his hand.

Gai then stepped in and handed him a green-spandex outfit, "When I heard that Kakashi was going to give you one of his old uniforms, I thought it was only fitting that I'd give you one of mine as well." He then tightly hugged the poor boy and started bawling his eyes out, "May you have a safe journey, Ranma-kun!" he cried out. Ranma just nodded and chuckled, before hugging the emotional man back.

Asuma gave him a book, a wooden-case, and a leather pouch, "This book has the latest 'Go' strategies, I thought you might want to read up on some of the professional moves when you have time. That wooden case is a miniature 'Go' board which opens up, and the pieces are in the pouch." He held out his hand as well, "I figured you'd want to keep up your skills, but it's not like it's really going to help you against me though."

Ranma just smirked, "Yeah right, you better watch out Asuma. When I get back I'm definitely going to win all of our matches," then he grasped his hand and firmly shook it.

Hayate handed over a book as well and sheepishly rubbed his head, "I didn't really know what to get you. So I just wrote down most of my family's old recipes and got someone to make it into a book. Most of the ingredients you can easily find in the wild, so this way you'll never have to just eat regular meat, you can have some variety." Ranma graciously smiled and hugged the man, "Thanks Hayate, this is going to help me out a lot."

Yugao, who was holding Hayate by his waist, gave Ranma a necklace with some charms on it. "I know, I know, it's a girly gift but if you hold up the charms to the moonlight, it'll reflect images onto the ground of different maps. This way if you ever get lost, you can just hold up one of the charms at night and you'll get an instant map."

She pointed to each of the charms, "You can see that they're marked too, so you can tell which map is in which charm." Ranma just grinned, "Now that's a really cool gift," then he gently hugged the woman. "When I get back, I better hear that you and Hayate are married, and that you have children or else…" he whispered into her ear, which made her blush and she punched him in the arm in embarrassment.

Raido gave him a pair of leather gauntlets, "These aren't just regular gauntlets, it's actually a hidden weapon. By pressing all four buttons on the inside of the palm with your fingers, a retractable flat-blade pops out through the front on the top-side." He demonstrated and Ranma just went whistled appreciatively, "Raido-san, you always did think about my safety," then he shook the man's hand.

Genma gave him a marble box, "Inside are 250 long toothpicks like mine. I figured you'll need plenty of weapons out in the real world, plus they make you look cool too." Ranma just grinned and pounded his fist against Genma's.

Ebisu just gave him a folded-up piece of paper, "This is a map to all women's bathing houses in the world…" He was wondering why everyone was looking at him weirdly now, "What?" Ranma just mumbled under his breath about perverted-hypocrites, before shaking the man's hand. "Ebisu-sensei, I'll be sure to ummm… keep this handy," he quickly put it in his pocket before his girlfriends could set it ablaze with their glares.

Ibiki handed over a rolled-up blanket, "These are some special kunai and shuriken I've personally created. I wouldn't want these to go to waste in this dingy village, not when you might need them a lot more than me." The two shared a sadistic grin, before looking away awkwardly. After a few seconds, they quickly hugged and released, after all it's just plain weird for two sadistic men to show public displays of affection towards each other.

Aoba gave him perhaps the greatest gift of them all! "Ranma-kun, I know how much you enjoyed these manga, so I bought them for you to read on your journey. I bought a lot though, so I hope you don't mind." Ranma just grinned before tightly hugging the man, "Aoba-san, you know I don't really think you're a geek…" he trailed off when he felt the man nod and pat his back.

Once everyone was done, Kurenai and Anko quickly stepped in and dragged the boy away from the others. They stopped behind a tree, where Anko gave him the longest, deepest kiss he's ever gotten from her, and damn… was that saying something. "Just a little reminder of what's waiting for you back here, lover," she whispered into his ear before gently licking and teasing it, and she kissed him again.

Kurenai took her turn as well, unfortunately (fortunately?) this kiss lasted over 15 minutes. When Anko saw the boy's eyes roll back and his body become limp, she was forced to rip the girl off of him so that he wouldn't die from suffocation. "Oops," The crimson-eyed girl nervously let out after seeing what she did, "I didn't think I held onto him for so long."

Correction, this was the greatest gift he received today!

After reviving the poor boy, the trio slowly walked back to the crowd. Ranma just ignored the cheering that erupted from nearly all the men, not to mention the cry of "Double Grandbabies!" from his mother.

Ranma looked around and sighed in annoyance when he saw that his little partner still wasn't there yet, "Where is she?" he wondered outloud. "We're right here!" Everyone looked up to see Hyuuga Natsumi holding the hand of Uchiha Haruko, both of whom were standing in the trees with backpacks on the branches.

"We?" Ranma said confused, "What's this 'we' business? This trip is just me and her." When Natsumi just grinned and pointed at the person who was walking towards them, he immediately turned around and glared at Sandaime who just laughed nervously. "Well Ranma, I figured it was best if you had a more-experienced shinobi by your side, and since Natsumi did request it… I felt it was best if the prodigy of Hyuuga accompany the prodigy of Konoha."

Ranma was about to yell at the old man, when he felt a hand on his shoulder and look back to see Natsumi holding her camera and giggling at him. "Hohohohoho, please treat me well Ranma-dono," She mischievously said while pointing her camera at his twitching face.

A few minutes later of more arguing then kissing his mother, brother, and girlfriends goodbye, the new team was walking down the path from the Gates of Konoha. Ranma stopped and turned around to wave again at the people who were still there, his family, his nakama (friends)… the people who meant more to him then words can ever describe.

"Sayonara Minna, Sayonara Konoha…" he whispered into the wind, "Until we meet again…"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Author's Comments (R&R)

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

These are some rough figures of the power ratings for my story, later on that is…

Strength/Chakra:

1) Kages: (100)

2) The Legendary Three/Sand Siblings: (95)

3) Ranma/Leader of the Akatsuki: (85)

4) Noriko: (75)

5) Akatsuki: (65-80)

6) Jounins: (50)

Speed:

1) Noriko: (100)

2) Ranma: (90)

3) Kages: (80)

4) Legendary Three/Sand Siblings: (70)

5) Akatsuki: (65)

6) Jounins: (45-65)

Don't expect that Ranma or Noriko will easily win in a fight against the Akatsuki. You have to take into account strategy, intelligence, the fact that they travel by pairs, and Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan. I mean, just take a look at the fight between Gaara and Deidara, Gaara was obviously superior in chakra and technique, but Deidara dominated in the end because of strategy and trickery.

Also in my eyes, Orochimaru was never in Sandaime's league, I mean Sarutobi had to fight against two previous Hokages right in the beginning and even after he was still kicking Orochimaru's butt! Nor is Itachi stronger than Orochimaru, if he was then why in the world was Itachi so hesitant to fight against Jiraiya especially when he had Kisame by his side. I think Orochimaru is just afraid of the Mangekyou, and he based Itachi's strength on just that one jutsu. We all know that Orochimaru may be seriously strong, but he tends to get overanxious.

As far as pairings go, Anko, Kurenai, Tsunade, and Shizune are the only canon women I'm going to hook Ranma up with. Yugao is the purple-haired ANBU woman who swore vengeance after Hayate's death during the Sand/Sound invasion, and I'm not gonna pair her up with him due to the way my fanfiction's set up. I also excluded Ayame because of the character interaction or lack of, just consider her feelings that of a schoolgirl crush, nothing too serious.

Yes, I know the battle scenes sucked, but writing fights are really hard because trying to explain everything that happens is nearly impossible without the inclusion of pictures. I could have made all of the fights longer and 10 times better if I was drawing them. There was just so much stuff I wanted to include too, oh well que sera sera.

I also apologize if the way Anko suddenly forgives Ranma made no sense, but they were holding each other for half an hour. I think any guy who's willing to stand for over an hour just hugging someone is pretty genuine. I don't think even I can do that… well maybe, I never tried.

By the way, the "Chou Reppa Dan" is the name of Andy Bogard's strongest technique, he's from the video game Fatal Fury/King of Fighters, and he happens to be my favorite character. Ranma's own version of that move is like Kiba's Gatsuga (Double Piercing Fang), only with the feet. He also has different variations of it, as you read earlier, he can either stomp on the person first then spin, or spin right off the bat. He can also use the spin to just increase his speed, then stop mid-way and use another technique.

For those of you who are Fugaku-fans, sorry… I really didn't like the guy much, so I just did what I thought made sense at his expense.

Just to warn you guys, from this point on, this story is going to consist of mostly original characters with references and cameo appearances of canon characters. I'm actually putting a lot of work into these original characters so that everyone will actually be able to understand them as much as the canon characters, so please try to bare with it, it's going to take some getting used to.


	7. A New Team

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 7 – A New Team**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Hyuuga Natsumi and Uchiha Haruko, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, just without the Byukugan and Sharingan in their current form, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** The new team is out on their first day, and dang are they off to a rough start. Action, drama, comedy, watch as all these unfold in this semi-exciting chapter of Captain Planet! Uhhh… I mean Shinobi of Legends!

……… sounded better as Captain Planet, didn't it?

* * *

"characters talking" 

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

Walking down a path on the outskirts of Konoha were three young shinobi, the latest team to leave the quiet depths of Konoha. However, this new team was anything but one, especially with only two members talking with each other while the third was in rear walking very slowly looking as if she was Death itself.

Upon noticing this Ranma looked over at Natsumi who just nodded in response, with that he went over to Haruko to strike up a conversation.

"Pretty nice day, isn't it" Ranma asked with a smile as he began to walk by the young girl's side.

"……" Was the response he got, which slightly strained his happy smile.

He tried again, "So ummm… you look nice today."

This time the only response he got was a turn of the head and a bone-chilling glare which instantly froze him in place causing him to fall down, she then stomped past him in a huff.

"What'd I do?" Ranma asked with a frown. He looked up at Natsumi who was walking towards him the moment Haruko snubbed away his attempt at being friendly, then she bent down so that their eyes met.

"Maybe she's just having trouble adjusting to the new environment and people," Natsumi said with a reassuring smile, "Or maybe she's just shy."

"Well whatever's going on, I hope she snaps out of it soon otherwise this is gonna be a long, long trip." Ranma then got up and dusted off his pants and began to walk, or at least attempted to walk only to fall right on his face, "Ummm… can you help me up Natsumi, I think she scared my lower body from moving."

She giggled a little and gave him a hand which he gladly took. After she helped him back onto his feet,

Natsumi looked over at Haruko, who was way ahead of them now, with an expression of sadness and pity. Ranma noticed this and wondered what she was thinking.

When Natsumi noticed the look of confusion, she frowned inwardly and silently thought to herself, _'Are you really that clueless Ranma-dono? She's not shy or anything like that, she's just lonely…'

* * *

_

A short while later the entire group was taking a break by a small waterfall. Haruko was sitting on the ground with her legs tucked in her hands, all the while glaring at Ranma. Natsumi was lying on the grass and dipping her legs in the cool water, and just looking around her enjoying the beautiful scenery. Ranma on the other hand was picking some berries and fruit with a nervous look on his face, it seemed that the Uchiha girl's glare was really getting to him.

"Natsumi…" Ranma whined.

Natsumi just turned her body on to her side and leaned on her elbow, only to raise an eyebrow upon seeing his nervous expression. Quietly and quickly, she put her hand in and out of her pocket (you'll find out why later), "Hmmm… what's the matter with you?" she asked.

"Ummm… I was just wondering if you could talk to Haruko-chan to see what's wrong." Ranma was now shifting his body left and right, it seemed like the brave, strong ninja was getting scared of a small 12-year old girl.

'_He can fight tens of enemy ninja with no problem, or spy in a city full of threatening people who would just love to rip him apart, but he can't find the courage to stand up against a little girl,'_ Natsumi just quietly giggled at the irony.

Ranma who heard the giggle, despite her attempts at hiding it, just pouted. It wasn't his fault that the light-haired girl was really scary, just looking at her direction gave him shivers up and down his spine. "Oh come on Natsumi, it's not that funny!"

Her giggles then became full blown-out laughter, she was even rolling around on the ground unable to control herself. "Please it's hilarious! I can't believe you of all people is afraid of a little girl! Imagine what all our friends would say if they saw you now" She managed to yell out before laughing again.

Seeing how his face was slowly becoming red in anger and embarrassment, she quickly forced her laughter to cease. "Alright, alright, I'll go talk to her," Natsumi conceded with a few more giggles escaping her lips. "Try not to wet your pants in the meantime, oh great, fearless Kemo-Sabe"

"I'm not scared of her, dammit!" came the indignant yell.

"Whatever mister shaky-legs, but you owe me big-time or else I really am going to tell everyone back home that the 1st-class super ninja himself was actually shaking in his shoes because of a young girl." Ranma just quickly nodded as Natsumi began to get up, besides what did he care what she told other people. He could just deny it in the end, after all who in Konoha would really believe that **he** got scared 'cause of a little girl.

However, Natsumi predicted this kind of thinking right from the beginning and simply took out a tape recorder, that she was hiding in her pocket and turned on earlier, and presented it to him. "Oh, and don't think that people won't believe me either especially since I got proof," Natsumi then pressed the stop button and smirked evilly at his shocked expression and gaping mouth.

'_Bwahahahaha, that's right my little dolly suffer, suffer! And don't think that it's over because your torture is just beginning,'_ her smirk got even larger and more evil at the thoughts of what she could do to him on this journey.

She then turned around and walked towards their other companion, leaving the shell-shocked Ranma all by himself.

'_I know she's lonely, but why in the world does she hate Ranma-dono for? Shouldn't she be glad that she has people like him to keep her company'_ She kept thinking about it, but couldn't come up with anything reasonable that still made sense.

"Hi Haruko-chan," It seemed that the young girl was so absorbed in trying to turn Ranma's head into melted goo that she didn't even notice the Hyuuga prodigy coming towards her, Natsumi figured this out by the wide-eyes that the girl currently had.

"…… hi……" came the small, barely noticeable whisper.

Hearing this and the way she was trying to scrunch herself up reminded her of her younger cousin Hinata-chan. It was so adorable, that it took all her will-power not to just hug the young girl and squeeze her till she turned red. Which she would then squeeze her again until she turned blue for becoming a cute red. Which she then squeeze her again until she turned green for becoming a cute blue. Which she would then… well by now you get it, Natsumi really loved cuteness.

Haruko, at this point, was getting slightly weary and scared of the lady in front of her especially since she had stars in her eyes and was clasping her hands together while whispering something about hugging her and dressing her up. By now, she was getting ready to run like hell but instead was just slowly scooting away inch by inch, why…… well who knows how small, young, anime ninja-girls really think.

Shaking herself out of her little fantasy, Natsumi turned her attention back to the important matters on hand. "Ano, Haruko-chan I was just wondering… why the heck you're all the way over there," Natsumi curiously asked after seeing that Haruko was almost 30 feet away from her now. "Come back over here so I can talk to you," seeing that the little girl was reluctant to do so, she walked over to her instead. She straighten her yukata and sat down on the grass, patting the area next to her indicating that Haruko should also sit down.

After making sure that that the little girl beside her wasn't going to run away, Natsumi began her interrogation.

"Now Haruko-chan, do you mind telling me why you hate Ranma-dono?" Upon hearing that name, Haruko's cute little face warped into a look of pure hatred, and then glared over at the cause of this change causing him to once again freeze up and fall right on his face.

Seeing that her companion's attention was now elsewhere, Natsumi tried to get it back by waving her hand in Haruko's face. "Haruko-chan, Haruko-chan, are you still with me?" Seeing that the young Uchiha was not going to stop anytime soon in her quest of turning Ranma into melted goo, Natsumi just sighed inwardly, then got up and walked over to the frozen statue that was once Uzumaki Ranma.

Dusting her kimono off, to make sure that no grass or dirt was on it, she bent down in front of Ranma and begin poking him in the head with a stick she picked up on the way.

"Hey… hey… hey… hey…"

Natsumi certainly was having fun in torturing the unconscious ninja, saying hey with every poke in an attempt to increase the annoying factor.

"Hey… hey… hey… hey…"

Average-Poke!

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey…"

Rapid-Poke!

"Heyheyheyheyheyheyhey…"

Super-Duper Mega Poke!

Of course like most other things, this activity was quickly getting boring to the teenager especially since Ranma wasn't even awake to get annoyed or to yell at her. Plus it didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon with just the poking tactic anyway. So she just sighed and pulled him out of the ground and began to drag him over towards a tree. Mildly aware of the young girl who was following their every movement with a glare, Natsumi just sighed once again and started to wonder if that girl was ever going to let up.

She then positioned Ranma's body so that he was leaning on the tree, then grasped his shirt and started slapping the hell out of him.

"…Wake up already, you no-good dumbass!"

Finally after several seconds he began to stir, but she slapped him a few more times anyway just for the fun of it and just let him drop to the floor. "Uhhh… ow, what the hell happened to me and why does my head and face hurt so much."

The young Hyuuga, upon hearing this, just innocently began to whistle and tried to look inconspicuous. "Maybe you just fell down the wrong way," Natsumi suggested.

"Yeah maybe but that doesn't explain my head," He looked at her suspiciously, and she just rolled her eyes and pretending to look offended. "Well whatever in any case, now that you're finally awake let me just tell you this, whatever you did to her, it must have been really bad…" Natsumi told the young man who was still rubbing his head and face. "…because I don't think she's gonna let up anytime in the near future, just look at her, that is a face of deep pure hatred."

Once he heard that, Ranma slowly turned around and took a small peek at the brooding girl who did indeed look very pissed off… super pissed off… mega pissed off… oh let's just face it, the girl was one big hate-producing machine! Even normal people could have seen her dark aura, and felt that killing intent of hers!

He just quickly looked away while shivering greatly… only to come face-to-face with a video camera? What the hell…

"Say hi to the folks back home, oh brave shinobi of fire," Natsumi cheerfully chirped.

Seeing that Ranma's left eyebrow was beginning to twitch rapidly, Natsumi quickly got up and began to run towards the forest. Making sure that she was safely hidden within the trees, she turned the camera back towards Ranma to capture the rest of his reaction, who was surprisingly still standing there twitching, she guessed it was due to shock or something.

Anyway after a few more seconds, Ranma exploded "I'M NOT AFRIAD OF HER, DAMN YOU!"

Then he furiously ran straight towards her direction, despite her best efforts in concealing herself. _'Crap, I guess it's pretty much useless trying to hide from that man.'_ She bitterly thought. Then she made sure to put her camera somewhere safe so that it wouldn't get broken in the upcoming fight, and jumped back down onto the ground.

Just as she expected, not even a second later Ranma jumped straight through the trees and landed near her in the small grove she was in.

"I am not afraid of a little 12-year girl, so you take that back you kuso-baka," Ranma angrily said, with his cheeks still red from embarrassment and anger.

"Hmmm… let me think about that." She then got into a few cute 'thinking' poses, and made 'hmm' sounds with every pose pretending to actually think about it (she was pretty convincing too, and anyone who didn't know her would actually believe that she was really thinking about it ).

Finally she came to her 'conclusion,' "Nah, because I know behind all that macho facade you're really just like the rest of those dumb jocks who are secretly afraid of most women because you know we can kick your butt," came the cheeky retort from the bemused Hyuuga. She expected him to yell at her some more, only to quickly jump out of the way from several shurikens which embedded themselves in front of the spot she was just in.

The moment she landed, she looked up to see a smirking Ranma. "We'll see who's afraid of whom when this is all over," Ranma confidently said to the girl in front of him who was also smirking and exuding the same kind of confidence he was.

Like so many times before, the two ninjas charged at each other, Natsumi was the first one to strike but Ranma quickly dodged the straight palm-strike by bending over backwards. In this position he tried to uppercut her in the stomach only to have blocked with a knee, but in that moment he grabbed her raised leg with his other hand and spun her around to make her dizzy and throw off her equilibrium, then threw her towards the trees.

Realizing that she now had the advantage, due to camouflage of the forest, he silently cursed himself for his over-anxiousness. _'Dammit, how could I be so stupid, she must have really gotten to me with her damn teasing,'_ he angrily thought just before he was forced to dodge several thrown kunai.

Of course, unlike what **he** did before, she didn't give him the chance to get his thoughts straighten out. She bursted out from her hiding place the moment he jumped away, and quickly landed behind him to strike him with a well-placed kick to the lower back. Then Natsumi swiftly ran straight past Ranma and placed herself right in front of him, who was still flying through the air from her kick, and successfully hit him in the jaw with a regular palm strike.

He then landed several feet away, tumbling on the floor a little, before coming to a stop right on his back, groaning and moaning in real pain. After a few short moments, she was getting curious and slightly worried as to why he was still on the ground, _'What's going on… those attacks should have been nothing to him, he should already be up by now.'_

While she was pondering, she saw him raise his right arm, and sighed in relief then smugly said, "What's wrong Ranma-dono, don't tell me you're actually hurt. You must be getting soft in your old age!" After a few moments she was getting more confused, seeing that he was still just laying there with his right hand (index finger) pointed straight in the air. Then she realized it, he wasn't signaling that he was fine and ready to get up…… he was signaling to her that there was something in the air!

"Shit!" she managed to yell out just before she got tackled by several hundred Kage-Bunshin clones.

After hearing his clones successfully get the jump on Natsumi, the real Ranma who was still on the ground just lifted his upper body, stretched his arms and back a little, and then leaned on his knees before he arrogantly smirked, "Hehehehehe, you got faster Natsumi. Not to mention your aim and predictions have gotten a lot better, since most of your kunai would hit me if I hadn't dodge just a bit further than I did. But as per usual you never could tell when I was going to strike with Kage-Bunshin."

Before he could celebrate his small victory, in just a second all of his clones were destroyed in a spherical tornado/whirlwind of chakra and he quickly got up and jumped away to land on a tree branch. _'Dammit!'_ he angrily thought, as he heard the trademark name of the powerful Hyuuga-clan attack.

"HAKKESU KAITEN!"

Afterwards he jumped down onto the ground and began waving his hand in front of his face trying to clear the dust around him, then he saw her slowly walk out of the dust and calming stand her ground in front of him with a cool, calculated smirk on her lovely face.

"And as per usual Ranma-dono, **you** could never tell when I was going use Kaiten"

After hearing that, he began to chuckle and then sighed, "I guess with that said, playtime's over huh?"

The only response he got was Natsumi, who closed her eyes and was frowning, using very familiar hand-seals and the equally familiar sight of veins bulging out near her eyes. Upon completion, she slowly opened her eyes, and he saw small blood-veins in her pupils and a lot of thick veins on the side of her head, he then heard her whisper "Byukugan!".

Gulping audibly and stretching his collar a little, he began fanning himself with his shirt. While to normal eyes it would seem that he was just pretending to look worried, anyone who really knew him would know that he truly was worried. After all, who in the world wouldn't be, knowing that they were going to fight against a Hyuuga who was serious. Only the stupid, over-confident or suicidal would do something as retarded as challenging a ticked-off Hyuuga.

It doesn't matter how powerful you are or how smart you are, if you fight against a Hyuuga… you're not coming back out of it 100-percent, hell there's a big chance that you won't be coming out of it at all.

They're just that strong.

"Ah crap" he muttered, as he stretch a little, and got into a loose fighting stance. "If I had known we were going to go all out, I would have brought my sword," he sighed out.

Then came the classic stare-down, who would make the first move? This time around it was Ranma who quickly shot off a basic Katon jutsu to catch her off guard, however she managed to completely dissipate the fire by simply using Jyuuken and thrusting her palm into it.

Ranma knew she was going to do this and quickly ran in front of her as the fire cleared, and grabbed her extended arm to judo slam her into the ground. What he didn't expect was for her to land right on her feet instead of her back, because of that he was forced to sloppily dodge an oncoming palm strike to the stomach……

"Ugh," Ranma moaned out in pain and grimaced.

…… which he couldn't completely avoid.

Natsumi took that opportunity to attack, but had to side-step an oncoming shuriken and soon she was dodging left and right as a shower of weapon came flying towards her.

"Kaiten!" With just one move, she managed to deflect hundreds of weapons away as if they were nothing but light feathers. However, there was one weakness to Kaiten and that's when the person was slowing down to stop, it left them temporarily vulnerable. Taking advantage of that weakness, Ranma attempted a jump-kick at her shoulder.

This weakness however, only applies to those people who can use this technique and don't have the fabled Byukugan… which is basically no one. In any case, Ranma forgot to take into account the properties of her bloodline, and was thus surprised when his kick was easily knocked away by Natsumi's chakra-surrounded palm.

Quickly recovering, Ranma tried to punch, kick, head-butt, shoulder-slam and in any way hit Natsumi, but alas nearly all of his strikes were deflected away time after time, with her gently using Jyuuken to alter the course of his attacks. He found this to be amazing, usually it would be impossible to use Jyuuken without hurting your opponent in any way, but she was able to control and use her chakra in a non-lethal manner. No wonder she was considered a prodigy, even amongst the Hyuuga Clan.

Before Ranma could use any of his ninjutsu-techniques, Natsumi quickly parried a judo-chop to the side, and flipped backwards to kick him across the jaw. The moment he was thrown off his feet, she struck at his face with Jyuuken creating much more damage then last time, the impact of the blow forced him to fly all the way into one of the highest trees, where he landed on one of the branches.

But while he was still flying through the air, Natsumi easily predicted where he would land and rushed straight towards it. Showing off amazing time and precision, at the exact moment Ranma landed, she reach the tree and hit the base of it with Jyuuken. She was able to control the power of her attack, so that it just caused the tree to quickly splinter and break apart in half from the bottom-up, leaving the poor sap stuck in the branches to fall helplessly down to the hard ground.

Just before the tree hit the ground though, he managed to jump out of it to land far behind Natsumi, who was still facing the forest. But the moment Ranma hit the ground, he fell down onto one knee, spitted blood out of his mouth, and started to breathe heavily signifying how strong her attack really was.

'_Oh man, that girl sure can hit hard…'_ Ranma wearily thought to himself, _'Why am I seeing 5 of everything? It's like she completely tore apart my brain. Thankfully she held back otherwise she might have done just that. Even though she's serious, she's still consciously aware of the fact that this is just a spar. That's the only reason why I'm not dead right now.'_

Seeing that Natsumi still had her back turned to him, Ranma took the opportunity to recover with a healing-jutsu. The moment he started the technique, he saw that Natsumi had immediately disappeared, he took a moment to ponder this before going back to healing his injuries.

Just before he could touch his head, Natsumi reappeared right behind him and grab his wrist, then took his hand to touch her own shoulder, healing a bruise where Ranma managed to get in with a punch from before. "Thanks for the assist Ranma-dono," Natsumi cheerfully said, just before she struck his back with Jyuuken using her free hand.

This would have hit if Ranma hadn't move to the side at the last second, then quickly countered by taking her hand, which was still holding his wrist, and maneuvered his body so that he was behind her, forcing her into an arm hold.

"Yeah, let's see you get out of this one," Ranma confidently said, putting more pressure on her arm. "Well if you insist," Natsumi said through clenched teeth, before tripping him up (and herself in the process) by putting her foot behind his and pulling it upwards. As they were falling down, she took the opportunity to free her arm and quickly turned around to face him, then struck at his exposed stomach with another Jyuuken palm-strike.

Before she could hit him, Ranma grabbed her wrist, and got right into her face, "Alright that's it, playtime's definitely over," he growled out. He then flung her over a hundred feet away from him, and jumped back to his feet.

Natsumi was surprised by the display of raw strength, so she wasn't aware of the giant fireball coming towards her until the last moment. _'What the…!'_ Quickly gathering her thoughts, she did the same thing as before and simply dissipated the fireball by using Jyuuken on it but that left a thick smoke to build up in front of her. Thanks to the powers of the Byukugan, she still managed to see Ranma running towards her.

Natsumi turned around to jump away from the hot zone, only to see Ranma quickly appear before her and punched her right in the stomach which caused her Byukugan to disappear due to the immense pain. Then while still keeping his fist lodged in her stomach, Ranma picked her up and slammed her body down into the ground behind him, causing it to slightly crack and break up.

He then raised his other hand and pulled it back, which caused her to flinch and close her eyes. When she didn't feel the impact of a fist, she slowly open her eyes and saw that Ranma was holding his hand out for her to take hold of, and he had a look of pride on his face obviously impressed by her show of skill.

"You did really well today Natsumi, I'm still feeling dizzy from that last attack," Ranma said with a sincere smile, which slowly turned into a smirk. "But as usual, I proved to be superior, and nothing's ever going to change that!" He began to laugh arrogantly, which he usually did after winning a fight.

Taking his hand Natsumi pulled him down towards her, so that his face was inches away from hers. "Well you may be the slightly better fighter Ranma-dono, but I'm always, and I mean always, going to be the dominant one in this relationship," Natsumi playfully growled out with narrow eyes and tight lips.

Before he could question her on what relationship they had, he heard a quiet but angry voice interject. "If you're so strong then why didn't you save my family?" They turned their heads to see Haruko walking out from behind a tree, with an angry expression on her face and a glare directed towards Ranma.

"What do you mean Haruko-chan?" Ranma questioned.

Catching a rock that was thrown at his face by the small child, Ranma looked at her with a raised eyebrow, obviously puzzled as to why she did that. "Haruko-chan!" Natsumi admonished, she herself not believing that the young girl just did that.

"If you're so damn strong then why didn't you save my family from being killed, you bastard!" Haruko screamed, angrily pointing at him. "I just don't understand it, I refuse to believe that out of everyone in my clan, I'm the only one you managed to find alive, that I'm the only one you could have saved!"

"I bet you purposely let my family die!" At this point the young girl was getting hysterical, "You probably hated us, just like everyone else did. I could see it in all their eyes, wondering what made us better than them…" She then collapsed on her knees and covered her face with her hands and started crying "Why didn't anyone to save us, didn't they hear us all screaming?"

As the young girl began to shed her tears, Natsumi moved to try and console the distraught girl but was held back by Ranma's hand. Looking at him curiously, she saw him walk towards her and gave her a hug himself and whisper ressuredly to her.

"Haruko-chan, please believe me when I say this." Ranma began to say "Nobody in Konoha truly hated the Uchiha Clan enough to see them end like the way they did, the reason why nobody heard your screams was because of the fact that Itachi had created a Genjutsu around the area." Hearing that Haruko looked up at him and saw him give her a small smile.

"Believe me, if I had any way of knowing that something was going to happen, I would have rushed right over and protect everyone with my dying breath." Ranma then sighed and looked at her with a sad expression, "It was fortunate that I even found you still breathing, if I did in fact hate you like you say then I would have never bothered to heal you and take you to the hospital."

Haruko ceased her crying after hearing that, but still couldn't help but wonder, "Was there really nobody else still alive?" Ranma then gave her a genuine smile and said something that brighten her eyes and gave her hope for the future, "Well I know for a fact that Uchiha Sasuke is still alive, in fact I even saw him walking around in the hospital last week. You see Haruko-chan, you're not alone. Especially not with me and Natsumi here, so I promise that you will never be alone." After that he hug her to his chest, and kept whispering 'I'm so sorry' and 'please forgive me,' while silently crying.

Haruko looked up at him with a shocked expression, never imagining that someone like him would cry over her family. She then gave him a small smile, and hugged him back, "I forgive you"

After hearing this, Ranma got up and quickly wiped his tears away with his sleeve, then held her hand as they walked back towards Natsumi. "Ano, Haruko-chan could you do me a big favor and not tell anyone that I cried." He sheepishly smiled at her, "I don't want anyone to think that I was a crybaby."

Haruko smiled understanding, knowing that she didn't like anyone calling her a crybaby either, "Sure, as long as you don't tell anyone else that I cried too." Ranma then held out his pinky and gave his solemn oath, she did the same and they both pinky swore never to tell another soul about this moment.

They did not take into account however, the pretty lady who was currently looking at them with large tearful eyes, holding a camera. "That was so beautiful!" Natsumi cried out, wiping off her tears with her sleeve. "But could you do that again but this time in the sunlight, since I'm sure I can capture both your tears better that way," she said, while pointing the camera back in their direction.

Hearing that and seeing the camera, both Ranma and Haruko quickly chased after Natsumi who was way ahead of them since she started to run the moment she saw their eyes widen and jaws hit the floor. "GIVE US THAT CAMERA!" came the angered screams of the crybaby duo, but the only response they got was a beautiful giggle, and her repeatedly saying "You can't catch me, you can't catch me…"

Well, things were rocky at the beginning but in the end, it seemed that this Konoha team was going to get along just fine with each other……

"HAND OVER THAT CAMERA, YOU KUSO-BAKA!"

"NATSUMI-SAN, DON'T MAKE ME HURT YOU!"

"…You can't catch me, you can't catch me!" She giggled, "I'm sure everyone would just love to see this touching moment, they'll probably even turn it into a movie one day!" This only encouraged Ranma and Haruko to run even faster.

…… if they don't kill each other first that is.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Author's Comments (R&R)

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

I'll let you guys in on a little secret, **this** was the very first chapter I started of this, I wanted to get started on my new characters so badly that I jumped the gun a little. So if you see mistakes here and there, at least know that this was my 1st attempt at fanfiction.

I thought this was more of a filler, but my friend said it didn't feel that way since it developed on the original characters a bit. Don't know what else to say, but I will comment on the Uchiha massacre, I just found it odd that one **kid** managed to kill off, presumably, hundreds of people in just one night without anyone noticing or hearing anything. It's like saying people didn't notice that a giant 9-tailed fox was rampaging throughout the village, after all you're bound to notice something, explosions from jutsus, screams from people dying. So my brilliant explanation was a genjutsu to block the noise, if you have any better suggestions, please I'd love to hear it, it's rather difficult to fill these plot-holes up.

By the way, I'm going to start on a "Ranma/One Piece" fanfiction pretty soon, its gonna be pretty much the same thing as this. Ranma plus original characters, with cameo appearances from the canon characters and some timeline changes to better fit the story. Keep a look out for it, but beware both these stories are going to be completely original. If you want something lame like Ranma replacing one of the existing characters (Naruto), or him joining the cast on their journey (One Piece), go read another story because you're not gonna like my fanfiction.

Obviously, in some crossover with shorter anime/manga, I'm gonna replace someone with Ranma. For example, "Onegai Teacher," I'll simply replace Kei with Ranma…… in fact, I'm planning to do this crossover too! However, for extremely long anime/manga, I think it's better to go with a bang, and make it new and exciting.

I also created a forum too, please check it out.

To end my rant…… ONE PIECE RULEZ!


	8. The Lightning Raiders

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 8 – The Lightning Raiders **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Hyuuga Natsumi, Uchiha Haruko, and the Lightning Raiders, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** In this chapter, Ranma will be reacquainted with an old friend and prospective love interest, and more original characters!

* * *

"characters talking" 

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

Several people were gathered outside a snack stand, watching something that they didn't get to see quite often, a ninja-battle.

Uzumaki Ranma and Uchiha Haruko were engaged in a light spar, while Hyuuga Natsumi sat on the bench observing them and munching on delicious mochi (sweet rice-cake). What was surprising to the two veterans was that Haruko didn't know how to activate her Sharingan yet, even though she was at Chuunin-level, it seemed that she got that far by using her own strength and not relying on the doujutsu's. That was pretty impressive considering that members of advanced-bloodline clans usually rely on their special powers to gain power and status.

Currently both fighters were in a contest of strength, gripping each other's hands trying to overpower the other. Ranma was easily winning, when Haruko suddenly let herself fall to the ground, taking him down with her. The moment her back hit the floor, she kicked at his mid-section with both her feet and sent him flying into the air.

She jumped back to her feet, and threw some shuriken and kunai at him which were easily deflected away by his sword. Inwardly cursing, she quickly used some hand-seals, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Skill: Grand Fireball Technique)!" and shot off a giant fireball.

The crowd 'oohed' and 'aahed' at the pretty sight, as the fireball hit the exact location where Ranma landed, at precisely the same time. The explosion caused him to roughly hit the ground but the moment he did, his body 'poofed' into smoke.

'_What the hell? Kage-Bunshin!'_ Haruko thought in surprise, just then she felt something sharp against the back of her neck. Slightly turning her head, she saw Ranma standing behind her holding a kunai, smirking arrogantly. "Your senjutsu (strategy) is amazing. Who would have guessed that you'd aim the attack at the place I was going to land, instead of directly at my body. That was pretty clever of you," He admitted, before sticking out his tongue, "But you still have a long way to go before you can beat me, Kaijuu-chan (Monster)…"

Ranma was interrupted from his gloating when he was forced to roll to the side to avoid a spin-kick that came from behind. He looked back and was surprised to see that it was a second Haruko that attacked him, _'She knows Kage-Bunshin too?'_

The real Haruko cutely stomped her feet and roared in anger, "Mou, Ranma-san! What's with calling me a Kaijuu, I am not a monster!"

He just laughed mockingly, "I'm calling you that from now on 'cause you act like one, and just now you even roared like one, Kaijuu-chan!"

She just roared once more and had her clone attack him again, but he quickly ducked under her punch and rammed a kunai in the side of her neck making the clone melt into water. _'What the… this is Mizu-Bunshin,'_ he realized too late as he found himself surrounded by a hundred water-clones.

"You want a monster, you got her!" All the clones hollered at once and immediately started hand-seals, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Skill: Mystical Fire Flowers Technique)!" then they let loose several mini-fireballs at the same time. However, just before the thousand fireball-barrage could hit Ranma, a circular-barrier of water instantly erupted around him and the fireballs were harmlessly extinguished.

"Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Skill: Water Barrier Wall)," Ranma calmly stated, before he quickly expanded the barrier to destroy all the clones surrounding him. Haruko flew back from the pressure of the water and tumbled on the ground, "Ugh…" she painfully looked back to see the water disperse and Ranma walking towards her.

"Now normally this defensive-jutsu can't be done without a large source of water around but I found a way around that limitation." He started saying before stopping in front of her, "Also a person shouldn't be able to increase the size of the barrier or use it as an attack, but I found a way to overcome those restrictions too." Ranma then bent down and extended his hand to help her up. However, she used a crescent-kick (half-circle motion), from her position on the floor, to try and hit him in the head but he just hopped backwards to avoid it.

Haruko swiftly jumped back to her feet and got into a strange fighting stance. _'No, it can't be…!'_ Ranma thought as his eyes widened in shock, then he quickly ran towards her and roughly punched her in the stomach, immediately knocking her out. He looked down at her unconscious body with some newfound respect in his eyes, _'To think that at such a young age, she knows how to use **that** jutsu…'_

Suddenly, Ranma felt a shiver down his back and looked around to see that the crowd was glaring at him with cold eyes, _'Oops, I forgot they were still here.'_ He tried to explain his harsh actions, but everyone just ignored him and walked away in disgust muttering about him being a cold-hearted bastard. He bowed his head and sighed exasperatedly, _'Geez, they didn't even give me a chance to explain,'_ he looked up to see Natsumi pick Haruko up and lay her down on the bench.

"Ranma-dono, would you care to explain why you just treated Haruko-chan like she was a punching bag?" Natsumi angrily asked, as she put a wet towel on the girl's head.

Ranma just rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and shame, "I didn't mean to hit her that hard. I just saw her about to do something that would have been overkill for a sparring session." She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, obviously interested. "That stance she was just in…" He softly said, "She was getting ready to use a very high-level jounin technique that only a few people I know can do."

Natsumi was definitely intrigued now, "Oh, and who are these people?" she curiously wondered. Ranma sat down next to the bench and gazed at the girl next to him, "There were only four people, Hokage-jiichan, Gai-san, Kakashi-sempai, and me," he then took the towel and gently rubbed it on her head, "But I guess the number's been increased to five now."

Ranma's expression became serious and he turned his attention back to Natsumi, "For her to be able to use this jutsu means that she isn't your average girl……"

After a half an hour, Haruko finally woke up and saw her friends standing nearby, eating mochi. "Hey, I want some too!" she yelled out annoyed, as she walked over and grabbed a rice-cake. Then she leaned on a lamp pole, and was about to take a huge bite out of it when she noticed Ranma and Natsumi looking at her curiously, "What's wrong, I got something on my face?" she asked.

They looked at each other for a second before turning back to her, "Haruko-chan, that last technique you were about to do, where did you learn it?" Ranma politely asked. She thought about it for a while before answering, "I'm not sure, I learned that jutsu when I was really young, so I can't really remember where I picked it up." Then Haruko finished off her mochi in a few bites and took another one before looking at them again, "Why do you ask?"

Ranma shook his head and waved the question away, "Oh no reason, I was just curious." He just continued to eat his snack and watched the two girls talk to each other. _'Unreal, she learned that jutsu when she was younger…! Even if she had the Sharingan, to be able to use this jutsu is nearly impossible without the proper training.'_

'_Now that I think about it…'_ His eyes widened when he realized another strange thing about the fight, _'…She was actually able to use a Katon-jutsu with her water clones too. Mizu-Bunshins should only be able to use Suiton-jutsus because of their genetic structure, but she somehow overcame that weakness.'_ He inwardly smirked and chuckled, _'…I think I found an interesting new egg.'

* * *

_

An hour later, they stopped by a local town to get some rest. Haruko was happily eating the rest of the dango (sweet dumplings on a stick) they bought earlier at the snack stand, Natsumi was reading some pamphlets she picked up near the entrance, and they were both sitting down in a nice restaurant enjoying themselves. Ranma on the other hand… well, he was doing something 'productive' and 'essential' as he liked to call it…

"Come on!" Ranma begged, "Please, please! Give me triple-7s!"

… He was gambling. Well, what do you expect, he was partly raised by Tsunade!

Unfortunately when it came to gambling, his luck was nearly as bad as his Tsunade-chama's. So the slot-machine just gave him different reels every time, "Oh come on, you stupid machine," Ranma angrily muttered before roughly kicking it. Because of the extra force, hundreds of 10,000-Ryou coins started to pour out of the slots.

"Bwahahahaha!" Ranma started laughing like a maniac, and gathered all the coins into a large pouch, "I'm rich, I'm rich! I always did have the best luck!" While he was too busy celebrating, he didn't notice three big men in suits walk up to him until one of them cleared their throat. He cautiously looked up and nervously chuckled when he saw them, "Hey, I earned these fair and square!" he told them, while tightly hugging the bag to his chest.

Then two of the men grabbed his arms and picked him up, "I'm sorry sir, but we're going to have to ask you to leave, we don't want trouble," said the third man while putting out his hand, "And please leave the bag here." Ranma just grumbled under his breath about injustice and handed over his coin pouch, "Fine, I'll leave peacefully…" When the guards put him down, he brushed off his clothes and calmly walked towards the exit. Once outside, he took out the same pouch from inside his jacket and deviously smirked, "…But I'm not leaving empty handed. Heh, I'm sure they won't miss a few hundred coins." Just then he heard some angry shouting from inside and quickly ran away as the three-stooges came charging out.

A few hours later, he was hiding out in a local bar from the goon squad who was still searching for him. "Hehehe, it's not like I really stole these, I bet that casino ripped off innocent people for this money anyway," he quietly reassured himself while tossing the pouch up-and-down on his hand and drinking the rest of his milk.

Just then three snobbish men walked in, normally he would ignore jerks like these, but they were having a very interesting conversation. "You know, I heard that the Densetsu no Kamo (The Legendary Sucker) is in town," the first man said. Ranma's ears perked at hearing this, _'Legendary Sucker?'_ he suspiciously thought.

"Oh yeah, she stopped by my gambling house earlier," The second man started to laugh, "Damn, the rumors were true about her. She really does have the worst luck in the world, she lost every single ryou she had in just one game!"

Ranma just shook his head, paid for his Moo-Moo Milk, and got up to leave. _'Nah, it can't be her…'_ Just before he stepped out of the exit though, the third man confirmed his suspicions, "You think for being one of the Legendary Three of Konoha, she'd have better luck."

He froze right then and there, "…Tsunade-chama?" he whispered in disbelief. Then Ranma made his way back towards the three men, "Excuse me, do you know where that woman is now?"

The gambling-owners just took one look at Ranma, before scoffing and turning back to their conversation. Ranma just sighed annoyed, _'Geez, I suppose we have to do things the hard way…'_ he mused, then he took out his pouch and picked out 20 coins before lightly tossing them on the counter.

"That's two-hundred thousand ryou right there…" Ranma muttered, rolling his eyes at their glazed eyes and hungry expressions, "Now, where's Tsunade?"

However, the men just ignored him and greedily stared at the money bag. "How about a little wager, young man?" one of the men suggested, as he took out a pair of dice, "If we win, then you'll give us all the money in that pouch."

Ranma looked at them with questioning eyes, "How 'bout if I win?" They just replied by laughing hysterically. As the men were rolling on the floor, his right eye began to tick dangerously as he slowly reached for his sword. One of them stopped laughing long enough to tell him the rest of the stipulation, "Alright, alright, if you win then we'll tell you all the information you want and give you back your 200,000 ryou. As a bonus we'll each give you the same amount, so that'll be a 600,000 ryou profit for you."

Ranma confidently smirked and agreed to their terms. The man asked the bartender for an empty cup, put the dice in, and shook it before putting it down lid-first. "Now Chou (Even) or Han (Odd)?" he asked, then Ranma closed his eyes and thought about it for a few seconds before he answered with, "Chou."

When the man started to lift the cup up , Ranma saw through the small crack that it was a four and a one. _'Dammit, that's Han!'_ He had to think fast, just then he quickly flicked a shuriken at the wall causing all three men to turn around at the loud 'thunk' sound, then he strongly blew on one of the dice forcing it to turn over.

He just whistled innocently when they suspiciously looked back to him, before the man completely lifted the cup up and saw that it was a four and a two. "Awww… how unfortunate for you guys," Ranma mocked as the men grumbled and one of them wrote down the information about Tsunade. He saw that they were about to leave without paying him and quickly threw a kunai at the doorway, making them jump up in fright. "Hey, what about my money?" He irritably asked before they reluctantly took out the necessary amount in bills and handed it over to him.

"Whew," he breathed out in relief, the moment they left, "That was close, I nearly blew it back there." Ranma turned to the bartender and laid some coins down on the counter, "Sorry for the damage, I'm sure that'll be enough to cover the repairs."

He read the directions that was written on the paper, and soon made his way towards one of the fancier hotels of the town. _'How can she afford to stay here? From what I heard at the bar, she lost nearly all her cash…'_ he confusedly thought, before walking up to the front desk. Just as he was getting ready to ring the bell, a clerk suddenly popped out from behind the counter, "Hello, my name is Akira… how may I help you?" The man had dark brown hair with light brown streaks, purple eyes, and wore yellow goggles around his forehead.

Ranma curiously looked around the front desk and asked the question just begging to be asked, "Where did you just come from?" The clerk politely smiled and shrugged, "Where do we all come from in life, sir?" he countered. "Ummm… our mommies' stomachs?" Ranma tentatively replied, then shook his head, "Wait, what the hell am I saying. Hey, I was just wondering if you could help me find someone staying in this hotel."

Akira just nodded, "Of course, I'll be happy to help. If you could show me a picture or something to identify them by." Ranma just took out his horsey wallet, and flipped around before showing him a picture. "I'm looking for this lady…" Ranma was confused when the man suddenly backed away with a horrified look on his face, "… what's wrong with you?"

"Tha… that's the Densetsu no Kamo, she came in a few days ago and demanded a room…" Akira stuttered out. Ranma just raised an eyebrow, even more confused than before, "Yeah, what's so odd about that?" The man just started to cry at the scary memory, "…But when we told her that payment must be made up front, she nearly tore the place down in a fit of anger. After that, we just gave her the best suite in the place," At this point, he was bawling his eyes out like a little baby, while sucking his thumb.

Ranma just sweatdropped at the sight, and palmed his face in exasperation. "Oh god, no wonder she could stay here. She scared these people into giving her a room!" He grumbled to himself, "I always wondered where kaa-chan got her mean side from."

Just then a loud voice echoed throughout the hotel, "I'm telling you Shizune, those bastards rigged that entire place! There's no way I could have lost in every single game!" Ranma turned around to see a beautiful blond-haired woman, with anger marks on her face, stomping towards the front desk. Slightly behind her was a timid cute black-haired girl, holding a pig in her arms. Apparently the cute girl was trying to calm the beautiful woman down, unsuccessfully by the looks of it.

"Those damn pricks, if I ever see them again, I'll tear them a……" Tsunade trailed off from her angry rant when she laid eyes on a certain young boy. _'Those eyes?'_ she curiously thought as silence loomed over them for a couple of minutes until Ranma tentatively broke it, "Tsu-Tsunade-chama?"

"Oh my god…" Tsunade mumbled into her hand, with tears running down her face. Then she quickly ran towards him, and tightly squeezed him to her chest, "Ranma-chan!" Despite being at the brink of suffocation, he slowly hugged her back and mumbled about how much he missed her. "I missed you too, so much," She whispered into his ear while kissing the top of his head.

"Ano, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune said after about fifteen minutes, and tap her on the shoulder, "I think you might want to ease up on your hug, the boy's gone limp." Tsunade looked down and confirmed this, then began to panic, "Oh my god, Ranma-chan! Wake up!" She furiously shook his body in hopes of waking him up, but stopped when a light-bulb lit up over her head.

She slowly lowered her lips over his but just before they made contact, Ranma opened his eyes, which widened considerably, and quickly jumped out of her arms. "Oi, Tsunade-chama! What were you about to do!" He shouted at the flustered woman who had a momentary lapse of amnesia. "Ummm… you see," Tsunade stuttered out, "Oh yeah, I was just going to give you CPR!"

"What were you thinking, you naughty boy?" She taunted, with a smug look on her face. Then she giggled when she saw him blush, before quickly hugging him again. "Ranma-chan…" She softly said, holding him out at arm's length to take a good look at him, "Oh my, you've definitely grown up to be a handsome man just like your father. Maybe even more so…"

Tsunade started to fondle different parts of his body, some of which made him blush heavily, and she was enjoying herself until a loud cough interrupted her. She turned around and saw Shizune with an expectant look on her face, then her own face just morphed into annoyance before she chose to ignore her assistant.

"Just what are you doing here Ranma-chan?" she questioned, while leading the boy over to the elevators, away from her bothersome assistant, "This place is pretty far away from Konoha, I'm sure your kaa-chan must be worried by now…"

Shizune just puffed up her cheeks, irritated that her master wasn't going to introduce her to the cute boy. _'He looks awfully familiar,'_ she thought to herself, before shrugging and chasing after them, _'Oh well, I'll figure it out later.'_ Unfortunately, she wasn't able to reach the elevators in time and the doors closed right in her face. She cursed under her breath, and looked at the long stairway dejectedly.

As Shizune started making her long journey up the stairs, the front clerk Akira got up from the floor and leaned on the desk with an annoyed look. "Dammit…" He quietly swore to himself before taking out a radio transmitter. "Gin, it's me…" he quietly spoke into the receiver, "Tsunade and her assistant are back, but there's been a change of plans. Tell the boys not to come, that I'll take care of everything."

Akira listened to the response before sighing exasperatedly. "Don't worry about me so much, just make sure that nobody else finds out about this," he harshly whispered before cutting off the connection. Then he looked up at the ceiling and licked his lips, "Now I just need to bide my time."

…Ranma sighed sadly at her question, "It's a really long story, Tsunade-chama," he quietly said. Tsunade looked at him worryingly, before she hugged his shoulder and kissed his cheek, "Don't worry Ranma-chan, we'll have plenty of time to catch up." When they got to her floor, she fished into her pockets to get her keys. After a few minutes, frustration started to build up because she still couldn't find them. "Shizune!" she screamed, just as the girl finally got to their floor, exhausted from the long run up.

'_Why did we have to be on the highest floor?'_ Shizune tiredly thought, before she blacked out. Tsunade walked up to the unconscious girl and reached into her pockets to get her set of keys, then walked back and opened the door. Two hours later, at Ranma's insistent requests, Tsunade finally walked back out and picked the girl up over her shoulder before going back in, _'Awww… I was hoping to have Ranma-chan all to myself,'_ she gloomily thought and pouted.

Tsunade put Shizune down on one of the beds, then took off some of her heavy clothes and pulled the covers over her. Afterwards she changed into something comfortable herself, before sitting back down next to Ranma, "So, the entire Uchiha Clan were killed off except for two people," Tsunade recapped what he told her earlier, "I'm sorry to hear that. This Itachi brat must be pretty strong if he managed to accomplish that in just one night."

Ranma just laid down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, I guess he is. But that's not the reason I'm here, I'm not here just to get stronger or to get revenge," he determinedly whispered, "I'm here to get some answers from that guy, my business with him is far from over."

Tsunade just looked at him proudly, before exaggeratedly yawning and stretching her arms. "Well, it's getting late," she stated before laying down next to him and smirking, "We should get some sleep…"

He nervously eyed her before sitting up and nodding, "Ano, Tsunade-chama if you don't mind I'll just crash on the couch okay?" He was confused and hurt when Tsunade just shook her head, "Eh, I can't stay here?"

She just grinned like a cat, "Now, now I didn't say that…" then lightly pushed him back onto the bed, "…What I meant was that you'll be sleeping on the bed next to me." Tsunade quickly put her finger over his lips to cut off his refusal, "I'm lonely Ranma-chan, it's been a very long time since I've shared a bed with a man so just let me savor this moment…" she whispered into his ear before lightly kissing it, then turned off the lights.

"Good night, my handsome Ranma-chan…" she huskily breathed out, "…Have 'pleasant' dreams," before cuddling with him like he was a teddy bear.

All throughout the night, Ranma just couldn't get any sleep because he could feel every single move Tsunade made against him. _'Oh man…'_ he thought as the buxom woman unconsciously rubbed her body all over his, _'… This is hell."_

Hours later, Ranma still wasn't able to sleep and just laid there in Tsunade's arms until they were suddenly lifted away as she woke up, and stretched her arms and back. She then leaned over and gently kissed him on the lips for a few minutes. "Now that's a reason to wake up in the morning!" she cheered after letting the shocked boy go, then got up to take her nightgown off.

All the while, a very-red Ranma was just gawking at the nude Tsunade, who was walking around the room, trying on different clothes. _'What the hell, does she even realize I'm still in the room,'_ he thought incredibly, just then she blew a kiss to him before entering the bathroom, _'… Guess she did.'_

"What's going on here?" He confusedly whispered as he got out of bed, "One moment I'm having a touching reunion with one of my mentors, the next I've suddenly turned into her lover…" Then he grabbed his head in horrid realization, "Oh man, what are Anko-chan and Kurenai-chan gonna do to me! I can't home with a third girlfriend, they'll kill me!"

While he was contemplating his doomed fate, a dazed Shizune woke up and hopped off her own bed. Feeling that she stepped on something, she lifted her foot to see that it was a horsey wallet and just stared at it curiously, _'Now why does this look familiar?'_ she thought before looking over at Ranma, _'Hey wait…'_

She finally made the connection and yelled out in joy, "You're Arashi-san and Noriko-sempai's son!"

Ranma jumped up from the sudden shout and looked at her weirdly, "Yeah, and…?" He really had no clue what was going on anymore, and was once again surprised when the girl ran up to him holding his wallet and shoved it in his face. "Don't you remember me, I'm the one who gave you this!" Shizune pointed out, rather cheerfully.

After a few minutes he finally seemed to remember, "Hey…!" She started to smile, "You were that girl who kept hiding from me!" Then she facefaulted and slowly nodded from her position on the floor. He knelt down to take a closer look at her, "What was your name again?" Ranma asked as he helped her up. "Shizune, it's Shizune," she told him as she was heading towards the bathroom, "And don't worry handsome, I already know your name."

Ranma just stood there awkwardly, "Handsome…?" he wondered if his life had just gotten better or worse……

While the ladies were doing their girly things in the bathroom, Ranma decided to wait for them downstairs and took the elevators. When he reached the lounge floor, he walked up to the front desk and rang the bell, "Hello, is anyone here?" After a few minutes of no response, Ranma noticed something strange as he looked around. "Where is everyone?" he wondered, "I know it's early in the morning, but there should still be some people around."

Just then the front desk exploded into thousands of pieces, "Gah!" Ranma screamed as the blast sent him sailing across the lobby. "Wha…" His arms shook as he struggled to get back up, "What the hell happened?" he moaned out.

"I happened!" Ranma slowly lifted his head to see Akira standing in front of him wearing a blue trench coat and a katana on his lower back. "You…" he quietly said as he shakily stood on his feet, "Who are you?"

In response, Akira opened up his trench coat to reveal a Kumogakure Hitai-ate around the side of his waist, "You're a Lightning-Ninja?" Akira started to nod in confirmation, but then tapped his chin as if thinking, "Actually, I'm sorta a nekunin (missing-nin). I was taken away from that pathetic village as a child, and was raised by… well, you don't need to know my whole life story."

He walked up to Ranma, who was leaning against the wall breathing heavily, and spun a kunai around his finger. "This was supposed to be an easy job…" Akira started to say, and he grasped the kunai firmly in his hand, "Eliminate Tsunade, and gain instant fame and glory. The reputation of my family sky-rockets and everyone in the world knows our name."

Akira just glared at him when Ranma started chuckling, "What's so funny?" he asked impatiently. "You are…" Then Ranma quickly grabbed the lightning-ninja by his throat, turned around and slammed him into the wall, "You're an idiot if you really thought that killing Tsunade-chama was going to be easy."

"Ho… How?" Akira choked out, as Ranma cracked his neck to get some kinks out. "What? You mean how am I moving so easily after that explosion?" The leaf-nin asked, "Well, while you were busy talking and strutting, I was busy healing myself. It was pretty easy, since the injuries weren't that bad…"

Akira just gritted his teeth in anger, and threw his kunai at Ranma's foot which was hastily moved at the last second. He tried to head-butt him, only to have Ranma block it with his hand. Then he tried to punch him, only to have it caught with that same hand. Finally he lost his patience, and the kumo-nin just spitted in his eye which forced the young prodigy to let him go.

As Ranma was rubbing his eye and shaking his head trying to get the pain to recede, Akira swiftly high-kicked him across his jaw, hurtling him into the opposite wall. He then threw several shurikens towards the trapped ninja only to have them deflected away with a kunai… wait a minute…!

'_Where did he get that weapon?'_ Akira thought in shock, then his eyes widen in realization and he glanced down behind him and saw the kunai that was imbedded in the floor was missing. _'Unbelievable,'_ as he saw Ranma slowly get out of the hole, _'He took out **my** kunai… but how!'_

"Whew…" Ranma sighed out, and smiled in relief, "That was close, you almost got me there." He started twirling the kunai in between his fingers, "Lucky for me, I managed to grab this thing with my toes otherwise I might have gotten hurt." Just to mock the guy, he wiggled said toes a little before quickly throwing the kunai at the stunned ninja, which 'poofed' into hundreds of kunai.

As Akira quickly jumped up to dodge the shower of weapons, Ranma met him half-way in the air and dragon-kicked him across the chest, sending him straight through the ceiling. Then he started on some hand-seals while falling down, "Fuuton: Kamaitachi (Wind Skill: Slashing Wind)!" and expelled an enormous gust of wind from his mouth. The wind entered the hole, and tore through Akira's body creating several cuts and lacerations around his body. Unfortunately, the hurricane was too powerful and it continued to tear apart the entire ceiling causing it to collapse in.

The expulsion of air gave Ranma an extra push, so he reached the ground instantly, letting him see everything that took place. "Uh-oh, I think I'm in big trouble…" He quietly let out, as he watched the beautiful hotel lounge quickly become rubble. "Ouch…" He then blinked several times as Akira's body harshly hit the floor, "That had to hurt." He winced as a giant piece of the ceiling fell down on the kumo-nin and his feet, the only part visible, started twitching in pain, "…oh, that had to hurt even more."

He clap his hands twice then clasped them together, and closed his eyes. _'I am so sorry, Kami-sama…'_ Ranma silently apologized, _'I promise I won't do this again…… maybe.'_

When he heard a groan, Ranma opened his eyes in surprise and watched as Akira pushed the giant rock off of him and slowly get back up. "Wow, you're pretty persistent aren't you?" He asked the battered and bruised man, who was dragging his feet towards him, "Not too many others I know would want to continue a pointless fight like this after getting hurt as badly as you, they're not that stupid."

Akira just sneered and tried to say something… key word, tried. "Oi, are you okay?" Ranma asked him a few minutes later, a little worried when the man just stood there with his mouth wide open. Then he cautiously poked the nekunin on his forehead, making him fall backwards, completely knocked out.

"I guess his body couldn't take all that pain after all," Ranma drawled, then the doors bursted open and several ninjas jumped in, landed near the unconscious Akira before picking him up and quickly disappearing. "Who were all those guys…?" He then quickly reached back to grab a kunai before it imbedded itself in the back of his head, and flicked it back to deflect a second one in mid-air. "…More importantly, who the hell are you?" He snarled out, as he turned around to confront his assailant.

In front of him was a young man, wearing a Japanese school uniform and his Hitai-ate wrapped around his left arm. He had light blonde hair, blue eyes, and a bland expression. "No need to worry about introductions now…" the boy quietly said, "You and I are sure to meet again, since I doubt that Akira-niisan will let things end like this." Then he dropped a smoke-bomb on the floor and thick smoke slowly enveloped him.

"Wait…!" Ranma protested, "That guy's your brother! What do you people want!"

"Everything will come to light soon…" he stated before disappearing within the smoke. Ranma just stared at the spot the boy was standing in with a blank expression, then nervously looked around the destroyed hotel. "The least you bastards could have done is pay for this mess," he bitterly muttered, before something hard hit the back of his head. "Ow, son of a…" He rubbed his head and looked down to see a wad of money and a scroll at his feet, "Did you have to throw it at my head though?"

"Ah well, guess I shouldn't be complaining," He counted the money and pocketed it, then opened the scroll. "Let's see what this says, I apologize for all the damage, this should be enough to cover everything, signed Gin," Ranma read outloud, "So his name is Gin, oh wait there's something more. P.S. You are an idiot, just like my brother. Here is a list of insults and snide remarks I've compiled and will be referring to you as in the near future. Brainless Boob, Ignorant Cretin, Mentally Challenged Dumbass………"

Ranma unraveled the rest of the scroll which dropped to the floor, forming a small pile at his feet. His left eye began to rapidly twitch in irritation. "That little brat," He darkly muttered, "I'm gonna teach him a lesson in respecting his elders."

He set the scroll on fire with flick of his thumb, and looked towards the stairway to see Tsunade and Shizune rushing down in worry. "What the hell happened!" Tsunade screamed as she ran over and checked on Ranma, "Are you hurt, Ranma-chan?" He just shook his head, "No, I'm just fine." He then looked at them in confusion, "But why did you take the stairs, wouldn't it have been easier to take the…" He looked over at the elevators to see that it got crushed among the debris, "Oops…"

"MY HOTEL!" The manager shouted in horror as he came through the entrance, then he angrily walked over to the dirtied young ninja, "YOU! Just what did you do to my beautiful hotel!"

"Hehehe…" Ranma laughed nervously, before bowing several times in apology. "I'm so sorry! It was all an accident, a very big accident," Then he took out the wad of cash from before, "But I've got the necessary amount to pay for all the damages."

The manager just grabbed the money, and silently counted it. "Alright this should be enough," he grumbled, "But I'm afraid that you and the rest of your hooligan friends will have to leave, Tsunade-sama. I knew letting you stay here would be a very bad idea"

Tsunade was about to protest, when Ranma quickly cut her off by putting his hand over her mouth. "We understand, we were just leaving anyway," He told her while looking directly into her eyes, "Believe me, its time to take off **now**…" She got the silent message, and reluctantly nodded.

Then the three started walking towards the front door, except for one problem… "Where's your luggage, Tsunade-chama?" Ranma asked.

"Oh, those fancy clothes weren't ours, Ranma-kun," Shizune intervened, "The hotel just gave those to us to stop Tsunade-sama from stomping around…" Then she nervously gulped and averted her eyes, when Tsunade turned to glare at her. "Really? Is that true?" Ranma further inquired, but Shizune just squeaked 'never mind' as her mentor's eyes promised much pain if she continued.

"Oh wait…" Tsunade stopped and snapped her fingers, "I forgot something back at the hotel, I'll catch up with you two later." The two young ninjas just nodded before walking off. As soon as they were gone, her eyes narrowed as she stomped back to the hotel. _'Kick me out, will you, ya pudgy bastard!'_ Tsunade angrily thought, _'Nobody treats me like that!'_ then she slammed her fist into the doorway causing the entire wall to break apart and collapse. She grinned satisfied at the shriek of terror from inside and happily skipped away. Who needed aroma therapy and spa baths to relax when you can just terrorize idiots like that hotel manager, _'… and kissing Ranma-chan too, that's certainly relaxing,'_ She giddily thought.

* * *

A while later, the three met up again and were about to walk towards a restaurant, only to be met by an angry Hyuuga and a yawning Uchiha. "There you are, Ranma-dono!" Natsumi shouted as she caught sight of him, "Just where in Konoha have you been! We spent all day yesterday searching for you before checking into a motel." 

At that moment, she felt a tug on her shirt and looked down at Haruko, "What?" She followed her finger as the girl tiredly pointed at something. Finally noticing his two companions, she just looked at them suspiciously, "Who are they?" she questioned.

Ranma just bashfully rubbed the back of his head, "Oh this is Tsuna…" His introduction was cut off when Tsunade covered his mouth with her hand and pinched his arm, "…mi! The name's Tsunami, and this is my niece Shizumo," pointing at the smiling Shizune who just waved at the girls.

Tsunade then leaned over and whispered into the boy's ear, "Ranma-chan, I don't want anyone from Konoha to know who I am, so just play along okay?" He just slowly nodded while rubbing his arm in pain, damn her freakishly inhuman strength!

The group of ladies and one man walked over to a nearby bistro to have some breakfast. Once they were all seated and received their meals, Natsumi began to ask 'Tsunami' questions, "So futari-dono, where are you from?"

'Tsunami' silently drank her coffee before answering, "We're from the Taki no Kuni (Land of the Waterfall), and we just came here for a nice relaxing vacation…" Then discreetly glanced at Ranma through the corner of her eye, "… and to have a good time."

Natsumi, who caught the look, just glared at her before nodding. "Is it true what they say about your land's hidden village…?" She suddenly asked after taking a bite out of her omelet, while everyone else looked at her in curiosity, "…That Takigakure no Sato (Hidden Waterfall Village) is home to an ancient Amazon-tribe?"

'Shizumo' answered the question for her 'aunt,' "Those are nothing but rumors, no substantial evidence has been found to prove that this Amazon-tribe ever existed," She paused to eat her waffles, "The only known fact about that village is the Hero's Water."

Haruko inquisitively looked up from her chocolate-chip pancakes, "Hero's Water, what's that?"

Ranma finished off his ultimate deluxe-breakfast (the whole menu) and leaned against his chair, "Well, the only reason they even bothered to put that backwater village on the map was because of this magic-water. One of its previous leaders extracted a special type of liquid from these trees grown in hot springs and processed it into the Hero's Water, which gives the user ten times his natural power…"

The young girl just looked at him with wide eyes, entranced with what he said, "Wow, so why isn't everyone in that village like supermen or something?" That magic water sounded so cool, maybe she could get some……

"It's because the properties of the water are terribly unstable and causes the person to shortly die after drinking it," 'Tsunami' told her, after she ate her breakfast sandwich. Haruko just grimaced and pouted, there went her idea of becoming a Supergirl.

Daintily wiping her mouth with a napkin, 'Tsunami' turned her attention back to the pigtailed-ninja. "So, Ranma-chan, you don't know anything about that ninja who blew up the hotel?"

He just shook his head, "Nope, all I know was that he wanted to kill you, other than that… well there might have been more but I had to beat him up."

"Assassins, how quaint…" 'Tsunami' dully replied, before kissing him on the cheek, "Oh well, I'm just glad you were there to protect me, my chivalrous knight."

Ranma just blushed then straightening up as Natsumi glared at him, and leaned his elbows on the table, "It's no problem, 'Tsunami-san.' In any case, we should be leaving now if we want to reach Kirigakure no Sato (Hidden Mist Village) in time…"

"Kirigakure?" 'Tsunami' curiously asked, "Why are you going there?"

"Oh, I just want to visit some old friends of mine," He replied, "… and maybe get some information." He got out his wallet to pay for the meal, when he noticed that it felt lighter. "Huh?" He checked the contents to see that the money he won from those gambling-owners was missing, "What the hell, someone robbed me, but how…?"

"Wait a sec," Ranma's eyes widened as he remembered the amount of money given to the hotel manager, "600,000 Ryou… 600,000!" Then he slammed his fist on the table, "That freakin' brat, he took my money to pay for the hotel's damages!"

A couple of minutes later after the boy had calmed down, everyone was standing outside ready to part ways. "Please, excuse us," Tsunade then grabbed Ranma's hand and dragged him away from hearing distance from his partners. "Ranma-chan, please don't tell them who I am until after I'm long gone," She quietly whispered, "If word gets back to the village that I'm nearby then Sarutobi-sensei might send someone out to get me."

Ranma just looked her confused, "What's so bad about that? You'd get to see 'kaa-chan again." Tsunade smiled at that prospect before it slowly melted off, and she sadly shook her head. "No, I'm never going back to that village, no matter what…" she firmly declared.

"Why not?" He angrily muttered, "I don't understand, if you want to see 'kaa-chan or go back home, you should just do it. What's so hard about it?"

Tsunade just bowed her head and sniffled, "Why in the hell would I want to go back to a heartless village that let a 5-year old baby go off to war," she grumbled under her breath.

Now it all came together and he got a look of understanding, before quickly hugged the crying woman. "Oh Tsunade-chama, times were really different back then. Jiji didn't have any choice…" He gently lifted her face with his hand and wiped her tears off, "…besides I remember wanting to go. In fact the whole reason he even allowed it was because I begged him."

Tsunade just tightly held him for awhile, he shivered when she nuzzled his cheek and purred like a kitten. "I don't care, I'm not going back…" she kissed him on the lips once more, before letting go and walking away. After a few steps, she stopped to look back, "… not yet anyway. I'm just not ready to face those people yet," she softly said.

Then she blew a kiss towards him and winked, "Besides what's the point of me going back now when my favorite little man isn't even going to be there," She playfully said before teleporting away. "Ano… Ra-Ranma-kun," Shizune stuttered as she walked up to him and gently kissed him the lips as well, then she looked away embarrassed and quickly disappeared after her master.

Ranma could only stare at the spot the women were standing in with a dazed look, before lightly touching his lips. He was brought back to reality when Natsumi came up to him and poked him in the cheek, "Ranma-dono, do you mind telling us who those women really were?"

He just put his hands in his pockets and started to walk, "I'll tell you girls later…" Then his eyes suddenly widened in shock, and he grabbed their hands and quickly made a break for it, "…Right now let's just get out of here!" Behind them were around 15 men in suits in hot pursuit.

An hour later, they finally lost the casino-bodyguards and were resting on the ground. "I can't believe you Ranma-dono, you actually resorted to petty theft," Natsumi accused him, while Haruko just glared at him. He just waved his hands in denial, "It wasn't theft!" he protested indignantly, "They stole my money first, it's only fitting that I take back what I lost, and whatever extra I got was to compensate for my wasted time."

'_It's true, why else would they make machines that only accepted 10,000-Ryou coins! They had to have rigged it,'_ Ranma sulkily thought to himself, before lying down on the ground and closing his eyes. "Bah, I don't care what you girls think anyway, I'm going to take a nap now since I didn't get much sleep last night," A minute later, a light snore could be heard from him.

Natsumi just looked at his sleeping form suspiciously, _'What did he mean by no sleep last night,'_ Then images of those two women flashed in her mind and she blushed heavily, _'Could it be that he spent all night… with those women… doing **that**!'_

Haruko was wondering why the girl beside her was currently glowing red, when all of a sudden smoke filled the entire area. Then she felt herself being pulled towards the ground, and looked next to her to see Natsumi holding her wrist. The Hyuuga prodigy just put her finger to her lips, signifying to 'be quiet,' before she got up and spun around like top blowing the smoke away.

When it cleared, both girls saw two men in front of them, each of them resembling Ranma's description of the ninjas back at the hotel. _'So these are the guys that attacked Ranma-dono…'_ Natsumi thought, when the taller one snapped his fingers and several other figures suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

'_Now this…'_ Natsumi and Haruko stood back-to-back, slowly looking around, _'… he neglected to mention.'_ Just then Akira's eyes widen in shock and disgust, and he quickly made his way towards them and angrily wagged his finger, "You girls should be ashamed of yourselves!"

'_What's his problem?'_ Both girls thought in surprise and sweatdropped as he pointed to Natsumi. "You! How could you wear such revealing clothing, I mean what the hell's wrong with your kimono! The dress part isn't supposed to be a mini-skirt, your slender legs shouldn't be showing! Don't you have any decency!" He bellowed with disdain, then pointed to Haruko, "You're just as bad, what are you, 6! A girl your age shouldn't be wearing a tanktop and short pants! What is this generation coming to! Are the both of you trying to become call-girls or something!"

Before either girl could use their womanly anger on the idiotic shy-boy, a sheath slammed onto Akira's head, knocking him out. Behind him was Gin holding his katana, and he bowed in apology, "Sorry for my brother, he's just a shy prude when it comes to girls."

"Onee-sama (older sister) always did tell me that it's polite to introduce yourself first. My name's Gin," he told them, then pointed to the unconscious idiot, "And that moron over there is my older brother, Akira. We don't have any family names though, we got rid of those mundane things a long time ago."

Then Gin pointed to each of the other ninjas and introduced them by name, "… and all these guys are our little brothers." He waved his hand to cut off any questions, "I know, I know, how can they be our little brothers when they're older than us. Ummm… you know how in mafias and syndicates, people lower than you in status are considered your little brothers…"

He paused at hearing a loud scoff, and turned around to see Akira slowly getting up, rubbing his head. "Don't listen to him, we're not some petty organization, we're a family. Hell, we're even closer than that, you lewd girls have no idea what we would do for each other," Akira stopped talking when he heard clapping and looked back to see Ranma sitting up, crying and sniffling.

"That was so beautiful," Ranma whispered, and blew his nose into a handkerchief, "It's so touching to see someone take the values of family to heart." Then he jumped back to his feet and silently mumbled to himself while pointing at each person, "About 21 in all," He quietly said, "Hey, that's blackjack!" Even at this time, his mind was still on gambling.

"While your speech was heart-warming and all, you didn't have to insult my fri…" Ranma cut himself off when he saw Gin, "Hey you! You damn pipsqueak, you owe me 600,000 Ryou!"

"No, I don't," Gin calmly retorted, "That money technically didn't belong to you in the first place. Besides you were the one who created the majority of the damages back at the hotel, so why should it be our responsibility to pay?"

Ranma blinked several times in wonderment and just looked over at Natsumi and Haruko. "Well, I can't really argue with that, since he does have a point," he shrugged, causing the girls to facefault. After all his complaining back at the restaurant, he was just going to let the matter go so easily…

"It seems I was wrong about you," Gin quietly told him, "You're even dumber than my brother."

Before Ranma could retort, Akira interrupted by taking out his katana and pointing it at him, "Alright that's enough, it's because of you that we lost the chance of a lifetime, so consider this our divine retribution. Don't worry though, I promise that your journey to hell will be short and sweet." He took several steps forward, but stopped when he saw that he was the only one walking, "Hey, what are you guys doing!" He shouted back at the others, "You're supposed to be helping me!"

Gin just looked as emotionless as ever, "This whole thing was your stupid idea, 'Nii-san. I don't see why we should get involved any more than we already have." Akira just fumed as he sheathed his sword, before the boy continued talking, "Besides this will give you a good chance to make some new friends, since you're usually so shy. Maybe this time you'll talk normally to one of those girls before you faint."

The other ninjas snickered as Akira turned red in embarrassment, "Shut up, you stupid morons!" He turned around to see that Ranma laughing as well while the girls were quietly giggling, "And you guys have no right to be laughing at me!" Then he threw several shurikens at Ranma which he quickly dodged by bending his upper body to the side, but then Akira rushed forward and delivered a massive knee-blow to his face, sending him skidding across the ground.

Turning his body, Akira quickly tripped up Natsumi by performing a low spin-kick, then spun around to kick her in the chest with the same foot. Immediately after, he head-butted Haruko in the side of her head, punched her in the stomach, rammed his elbow in the back of her neck, and then grabbed the back of her shirt to throw her into the air. "Raiton: Raikarada no Jutsu (Lightning Type: Lightning Body Technique)!" he yelled out as lightning covered his entire body, and he started to glow blue and crackle with electricity.

He then shot himself into the sky, towards the still-airborne Haruko, when a sudden kick to the head sent him straight back to the ground. His body went tumbling across the ground a few times, before he lost his electric glow and slowly looked up to see Ranma holding Haruko in his arms, gently putting her down on the floor.

Akira got the shock of his life when Ranma looked towards him with glowing red-eyes, _'What the hell is wrong with his eyes!'_ He took a small step back, slightly intimidated. Ranma then disappeared and reappeared in front of a surprised Akira, and roughly shoved his foot into his gut, causing his body to fold up.

"Gah…" Akira moaned out, as he doubled over and puked his lunch out, "Wha… what the hell…" Just then, Ranma grabbed him by the back of his neck and picked him up. "This is divine retribution…" He threatened, as he glared with his glowing-eyes, "But you should know that, Akira." Ranma quickly punched him across his cheek, then lightly tossed him into the air before strongly kicking him in his ribs, then grabbed him by his shirt before he went flying, and uppercutted his jaw.

The force of the uppercut sent the kumo-nin straight into the air, where Ranma performed a multiple bicycle-kick across his chest, and sent him straight into the earth, where he made a small crater upon impact.

"Nii-chan!" The shinobi yelled out in worry, but Gin stopped them from rushing forward. "Matte (wait)…" He whispered, "Akira-niisan is far from done." At that moment, Akira slowly got up and stumbled towards Ranma, "That's right Gin, this fight isn't over just yet."

Then he shakily pointed at Ranma, who now had Natsumi and Haruko by his side, "You damn asshole…" he harshly said, spitting out some blood, "If it wasn't for you, then everyone would know Kuro-ani's name by now."

'_Kuro…?'_ Ranma silently wondered, then walked towards the beaten nekunin. "Look, I really don't know what's going on, but…" He was cut off when Akira tried to punch him in the face, and dodged it by leaning back. However, he was caught unprepared for the bolt of lightning that shot out of Akira's mouth, and was sent straight through the air.

His body skidded across the ground, before he grabbed the dirt with his fingers to slowly come to a stop. _'That was Raikurai (Lightning Bolt)…'_ Ranma thought as he grasped his face in pain, then he was knocked away when Akira rammed his shoulder into his chest. Afterwards, Akira attempted a high roundhouse-kick, only to have Ranma duck under it and retaliate by flipping onto his right hand and pivoting on it to perform a bicycle-kick which hit him right in the jaw.

As soon as the man's body hit the floor, Ranma lifted him up by his neck and got right into his face. "Just what do you want!" He growled out, then grabbed Akira's fist as he tried to punch him again, and harshly head-butted him in the nose. "I'm not going to ask again……" Ranma snarled in a soft but dangerous tone.

Just then, he bent his upper body to the side to avoid a jump spin-kick, but a second kick to the side of his head sent him straight into the dirt. Ranma picked himself up and looked back to see Gin holding Akira in his arms, before handing him over to their little brothers.

"Now Akira-niisan is done," Gin quietly declared, then he got out his own katana and charged the fire-ninja. The next few minutes, Ranma was forced to move and dodge to avoid being cut up by this skilled swordsman. _'This kid is really good with a sword,'_ He flipped backwards to avoid a slash, _'Too bad for him…'_ He quickly moved to the side to avoid being stabbed, _'I'm done playing around!'_

Ranma unsheathed his own katana, and quickly deflected a thrust, then blocked a slash before pushing forward to hold the boy in place. "Now do **you** mind giving me some answers?" He asked Gin, as they were caught in a stalemate……

"Shouldn't we help him?" Haruko worriedly asked, and Natsumi just shook her head. "No, not yet anyway," She gently smiled, "If there's one thing I've learned during my time with him, it's that Ranma-dono can take care of himself in any situation." She then grumbled in anger, "Besides, his male ego and pride usually ends up resenting me whenever I help him out in a fight."

……Ranma was surprised when Gin freed himself by bending over backwards to the side, then spinning his body around and slicing upwards to cut him vertically across the shoulder. The only reason Ranma's arm was still attached was because he narrowly avoided the attack by jumping backwards. _'Dammit…'_ He thought as he started healing his wound, _'Looks like I underestimated this kid.'_

Gin caught a movement in the corner of his eye, and quickly started on hand-seals, "Raikurai (Lightning-Bolt)," and shot off several bolts of lightning from his hand. Ranma flipped to the side to avoid them, only to be caught in mid-air by a hurricane kick which hit him several times in the back.

Painfully hitting the ground, Ranma looked up to see a bloodied Akira, smirking down at him. "Hehehe…" He quietly laughed, "My otouto (little brother) was right, you really are an idiot if you thought normal attacks would put me down."

Akira held up his hand which had electricity crackling around it, "It's all about the jutsus, man," then he clenched it into a fist, completely covering it with lightning. "Raiton: Dai Raiken (Lightning Type: Grand Lightning Fist)!" He yelled out just before he punched at the fallen Ranma, only to have him handspring away, so instead Akira hit and completely destroyed the area that he was laying in.

'_No way…'_ Ranma thought as he straighten up and watched Akira pull his fist out of the broken earth, _'Not only does this guy know the different variations of Raikurai, but he also knows Dai Raiken!'_ He then watched as Gin walk over and kneel by him, _'And I still don't know what that midget can do…'_

"Are you sure you want to do this, Akira-niisan? Your injuries…" Gin quietly asked Akira, who just emitted a tiny laugh. "Quit worrying about me so much," Akira said, "Isn't it the older brother's duty to look out for the younger brother? So quit breaking the rules."

He tried to get back up, but grimaced at the pain. "You're right about one thing though, my injuries might be too much," Akira looked over at Natsumi and Haruko, "So you take care of the buffoon, while I get rid of those girls…"

Gin nodded then quickly ran over to Ranma and swung his sword, which the fire-nin dodged by bending backwards. Seeing an opening, Gin took the chance to trip him up with a low-kick and threw his katana into the air. "Raiton: Buraitou (Lightning Type: Dancing Thunder Blade)," He then formed a blade of lightning around his hand, and slashed at Ranma's chest making a deep cut.

Gin swiftly used a ground-kick, only to have Ranma avoid it by rolling back, and jumped back to his feet by pushing up with his right hand. Ranma then shot himself forward to knee the boy in the ribs, then used a palm-strike at his jaw. "Argh!" Gin screamed in pain, before Ranma performed an axe-kick which hit him right in the chest, sending him back-first into the dirt.

"Just what are you going to do now?" Ranma asked the fallen kumo-nin, he just responded by cracking a smile, "What are you smiling about?" Gin just opened his eyes and look towards the sky, "Why don't you see for yourself, you brainless boob." Ranma looked up, and his eyes widened when he saw the kid's katana falling straight down at him, he quickly hopped backwards to avoid it, but couldn't avoid the lightning-blade which pierced his heart. _'This kid…'

* * *

_

"Sorry shameless girls, but we're going to have to get rid of you now," Akira said, before he snapped his fingers and the rest of his family went charging towards them. _'Okay…'_ he thought as he watched them fight, _'which one first?'_

Natsumi quickly knocked down three of the ninjas with several well-placed palm strikes, while Haruko took out two with a split-kick but was knocked down by a kick to the back… _'That one!'_ Akira then rushed straight for the young Uchiha, and harshly kicked her in the ribs while she was getting back up, spinning her body around in the air. He leaped forward and roughly punched her right in the stomach, then turned his body to grab her by the leg and threw her into the air.

Just as Akira getting ready to use a jutsu, he felt a strong burst of energy from behind and turned around to see all his little brothers getting tossed around by a spherical tornado/whirlwind of chakra. _'What in the world…?'_ Then he felt a gust of wind pass by him, and looked back to see the older girl gently catching the younger one in her arms as she was falling down.

Natsumi hastily laid the bruised girl on the floor and checked her breathing, pulse, heart rate, and blood flow. "I'm fine, Natsumi-san… you're tickling me," Haruko giggled, making Natsumi fondly smile which slowly vanished as she activated her Byukugan, and turned her head towards her target. "Don't you know, shy-boy," She growled out, "That a man should be gentler with a lady, after all we are delicate flowers."

Akira was, once again, shocked beyond belief, when this particular Konoha-ninja glared at him with pupil-less eyes surrounded by bulging veins. _'A Hyuuga!'_ Was his final thought, before Natsumi disappeared and immediately reappeared, knelt down in front of him, to quickly rise up and slam a Jyuuken palm-strike into his chest, _'This is what you call delicate, you shameless wild elephant…?'_ Then everything went dark.

* * *

'…_is amazing.'_ Gin was surprised when his target 'poofed' into a log. "Kawarimi!" he whispered before he got pushed off his feet from the side, then strongly punched in the cheek to go flying through the air. He cut his flight short by grabbing his imbedded sword by the hilt and spinning around to land on the ground. 

"You've really impressed me, you know that twerp…" Shaking his head, Gin looked up to see a smirking Ranma, "…Not only did you think up several moves ahead of the situation, but you also baited me into attacking to set your plan into motion. What's wrong though, don't tell me you ran out of steam? This was just getting interesting."

Gin narrowed his eyes, but then looked to the side to see that his family was already beaten. He sheathed his katana and began walking away, "Enough of this, you wanted to know what my brother's plans were about, right?" He continued when Ranma nodded, "It was a rather simplistic plan really, he just wanted to make the name of our family famous. He just wanted our name to be known throughout the world."

Ranma remained silent as he recalled Akira saying something similar back at the hotel, _'That was true? I thought he was just lying…'_

"Unfortunately…" Gin continued, "He came upon a large mountain in his path… you. Now don't think of my brother as being shallow for wanting fame and glory, his reasons are much deeper than they appear but I have no right to tell you them without his consent."

"Know this though, when the time comes for you to meet **that** man… everything will be made clear. Until then I bid thee adieu." Gin held up a paper talisman, where smoke quickly surrounded him and the others, and when it cleared not a trace of their presence was left.

'_Man, I think things just got a bit more complicated…'_ Ranma's train of thought was interrupted by a piece of paper floating around his face. Grabbing it out of the air, he silently read the contents then crushed the paper. "What's wrong, Ranma-san?" Haruko asked, he just tossed the crumpled paper over to her, and she re-opened it.

"Next time we meet, the results won't be in your favor. You just got lucky today because Akira-niisan wasn't at his best, if he was at full-power then you wouldn't have won." Haruko read the note outloud. She blinked a few times, and then held her stomach in pain. _'No way, that guy can get even stronger…?'_ she thought in amazement, and inwardly smirked, _'The chance of fighting someone that strong, now I'm getting really excited.'_

Natsumi just looked at the trembling girl with worried eyes, _'That's strange, I'm sure nothing was wrong with her. Maybe I should have Ranma-dono check her out, just in case…'_

Ranma stared at the sinister-looking girl, trembling in excitement, then at the worrisome mother-figure and just blanched. He really had to kick those guys' asses for doing this to him, as if these girls weren't hard enough to be around with.

* * *

A week later, they were standing outside of the seaport ready to travel to the water country except there was one minor problem… 

"What do you mean all ferries to Mizu no Kuni's (Land of Water) been canceled!" Ranma shouted at the conductor.

The man could only bow his head in apology, "I'm sorry sir, but the whole island was recently under attack so entrance has been restricted to everyone." Ranma only glared at the man's back as he walked away, and then turned to his friends in annoyance. "Now what do we do?" he grumbled as he eyed the large crowd. They could always run on the water and travel by foot, but that might attract unwanted attention, plus they had to conserve energy.

Just then smoke enveloped the sea shore, and when it cleared a boat was suddenly floating in the water…

The three ninjas looked at the boat with wide eyes and gaping mouths, just where the hell did this thing come from? Ranma cautiously tap the side of the boat with his foot, when it didn't sink or explode, he hopped into it and looked around. He grinned and gave the girls a thumbs-up, signifying that it was okay, and helped them get in.

"Cool, there's even blankets and food here," Haruko commented as she sat on the far end, she was so excited, this was the first time she ever traveled by sea. She then noticed something yummy among the contents, "Chocolate-bars! Yay, it even has peanuts and caramel in it!" She happily shrieked after biting off half the bar with a single chomp, while opening another pack…

Natsumi carefully sat down at the other end and tried not to move around too much, _'Ugh… I hate boats, and ships, and anything else having to do with traveling by water,'_ she sickly thought, as she tried not to hurl.

"I think we better take advantage of this gift and leave right now," Ranma said as he saw several people come towards them, "We don't want any stowaways." Then he took the oars and rowed the boat away from the shore, towards their future destination.

Just as he turned the boat around, he noticed several figures in the distance standing on the hillside, two of whom were very familiar. "Akira and Gin!" He quietly exclaimed, making the girls look towards the shore. It was true, the two lightning ninjas were standing next to six other people, each bearing the Kumogakure Hitai-ate. _'I have a strange feeling, that this isn't the last time we're going to see those people,'_ Ranma wearily thought.

"Is that the guy who beat you up, Akira-niichan?" One of the girls asked, as they watched the leaf-ninjas sail away.

"He didn't beat me up!" Akira loudly denied as he lowered his goggles over his eyes, "He just got lucky, and caught me off-guard! Plus there were three of them, and they ambushed me too!"

Another girl just tilted her head in confusion, "But that's not what Gin told us. From his story, you're the one who surprised them first, and in the end you got clobbered and knocked out by the older girl." This girl looked exactly like the first one except she had a different hairstyle and hair-color.

Gin shrugged indifferently when Akira glared at him, "What? You didn't expect me to lie to our own family, did you? Especially not to Sephiria and Rinali, they're so young and impressionable, I can't have them looking up to a Neanderthal like you."

Akira just grumbled some more before angrily yelling, "Hey wait a minute! How come you didn't come to help me back at the hotel, we could have beaten that konoha bastard then and there!"

Gin just tapped his chin with a finger, "What are you talking about…" He then snapped his fingers in realization, "Oh yeah, well I was too busy writing my list of insults for him, guess I forgot all about you." Akira was about to stomp towards his annoying target when an even more annoying person grabbed his attention.

"Ora, Nii-chan! How could you lose to that pint-sized skin and bones!" A large man grunted, while getting into different poses. "If I ever meet him, I'll kick his butt straight to Sunagakure! GREAT-O!" He flexed his muscles, making the twins giggle.

"Taka-chan, you should calm down," An elegant women admonished, "It's not your older brother's fault that he's a weakling."

"Nani (What)!" Akira shouted indignantly, "Taka-chan, Eve-nee, I am not weak! I'm still the 4th strongest member of the group after all!" Man, how did he get to be the stooge of the family, especially with a loud, posing idiot like Takaharu in it…

"Maa, Aki-chan…" A cheerful voice interrupted, silencing his whining. "Don't you mean 3rd strongest, since Kuro-buu isn't a part of 'The Seven Wonders.' Remember, he's just the leader of the organization as a whole, and not part of our elite-group."

"Oh yeah, that's right," He bashfully rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry Yuki-nii, I keep forgetting that. I still don't understand though, why aren't you part of the elite-squad, Kuro-ani? I mean, you are the boss so you should be able to do whatever you want."

"Akira, I told you before…" the final person quietly said, "…I created 'The Seven Wonders of Kumo' to show people how strong **you guys** are. I'm like your guardian angel, always looking out for you and making sure you don't get hurt."

Akira looked at Kurogane with stars and childish adoration in his eyes, before Eve slapped him on the back of his head. He turned his head to glare, when his eyes widened and mouth gaped, "What the freak! What are you wearing, Eve-nee!" He yelled out in shock.

Eve looked down at her clothes with curiosity, "What's wrong?" she asked in confusion. She then sweatdropped when Akira pointed at her and yelled, "What's wrong! Just look at yourself, your dress is way too tight. What's with that hole on the chest, people can see your breasts! Not to mention you're wearing fishnet stockings! Oh, the shame, the horror, my own sister's a hooker…!" Akira's complaints were cut off when Eve grabbed him in a headlock, and squeezed tightly, "Shut the hell up already, you prudish little brat!"

Kurogane just shook his head at the sight and turned to Yukimura, "By the way Yuki, I've been meaning to mention this for awhile now, you act way too happy for a ninja. Enemies are going to think that you're an idiot."

"Eh, what do you mean?" This man had a gentle, feminine face, and wavy blue hair that was split in the middle, and yellow eyes, "I'm not happy at all…" Maybe people would have believed him if he didn't have a big cheerful grin plastered on his face.

Kurogane flatly stared at his younger brother for a moment before turning away. "Forget what I just said, people would be right to assume that you're an id…" He was cut off when a finger kept his mouth closed, and an anger-vein appeared on his forehead as he glared at his smiling younger brother. "Yuki…" He mumbled through tight lips and slowly took out his sword, "…Just die, you moron!"

Yukimura quickly ran away from his sword-swinging older brother while laughing merrily, pleased at his results, "Yay! Now you're having some fun, Kuro-rin!"

"And stop calling me those dumb names, you stupid fool!"

Suddenly a feminine foot stuck out, tripping Kurogane, resulting in him falling flat on his face. "Aniki, I have a question for you," Eve said as she sat down on the back of her planted brother, while still holding onto the very-blue Akira, "Why did you give those three that boat?"

Kurogane lifted his head out of the floor and spit some of the dirt out of his mouth, "It's because I wanted to get them out of our hair." He growled in anger when Yukimura crouched in front of him and started poking his nose, giggling like a little kid, "After all, it's getting really close to party-time, and it just won't do to have anyone ruin our fun. Now that I answered your question, Eve… get off of me already."

She did so, but not before shoving his face back into the dirt causing Rinali, Sephiria, Takaharu, and Yukimura to giggle/laugh like crazy, while Gin just sighed at the stupidity of his family. Of course, Akira was still being choked to death but nobody cared about that.

Growling in embarrassment, Kurogane picked himself up and dusted his clothes off, before putting his sunglasses on. "Normally I would never pass up the chance to fight a powerful opponent, but our window of opportunity is getting smaller and smaller." He frowned as the others continued to listen, "If we want any chance of taking back what's rightfully ours, then we can't afford to waste the little time that we have left."

"Come on, let's go back home," He then walked away and his siblings silently followed him, with one foaming at the mouth from lack of air. "But you know…" Kurogane smirked eagerly, "I have a good feeling that this isn't the last time we're going to see those Konoha-shinobi."

Yukimura 'hmmed' as he raised an eyebrow, "No need to worry about them, Kuro-tan," He giddily whispered, "We'll make sure that nothing happens to ruin our all of our hard work. After all, we've sacrificed five years to get to this point, there's no way we'll let you down."

Eve nodded in agreement and finally released Akira from his torture, "That's right, anyone who gets in our way…" She started to say.

Takaharu grinned evilly, "… We'll crush them, BABY," He finished.

Sephiria and Rinali agreed with their declaration by getting into a duel-pose, "Ne!" they yelled out and started to giggle. This caused Takaharu to get into several of his own poses, which made Eve smile in amusement and the twins to giggle even louder.

Gin, on the other hand, just groaned and palmed his face in embarrassment, _'I'm surrounded by idiots…'_ He exasperatedly thought.

After getting his breath back, Akira bursted into laughter, "You see Kuro-ani, we've got everything covered over here, so quit stressin' out. If those punks ever bother us again…" He grinned darkly, "…Then I'll make sure that they regret the day they ever messed with the Lightning Raiders! Gyahahahaha!"

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Author's Comments (R&R)

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Everyone who thinks Ranma was being OOC during that gambling thing, well he's got a semi-gambling problem. He's got enough control that he won't take out his entire life-savings and bet with it, but he's most likely to lose all the money he has with him at that moment. Let's just say that his mother had some influence on this, she couldn't get completely rid of his compulsive gambling, so she just toned it down enough so he wouldn't lose everything he has.

If the whole love scenes with Tsunade made no sense to you, don't worry 'cause they made no sense to me either. This was the reason why I had Ranma confused as well, since that represents my own confusion. I had to do something to make Tsunade and Shizune part of his harem, unfortunately I had no idea how to do it correctly so I used her being lonely as an excuse. Shizune, well she just has a crush which will further develop into love.

"Raikarada no Jutsu" is essentially electricity covering the entire body, from head to toe, like a lightning-armor. However no regular attacks can destroy the armor, only the Jyuuken can since it's designed to destroy chakra. The armor can automatically heal itself too, as long as the jutsu is still in place, unless it's being destroyed at a very high pace where it doesn't have time to heal. For those of you whose seen Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Raikarada is the same thing as that glowing-attack that Loz (The Biggest SHM/Silver-Haired Men) used sometimes.

"Dai Raiken" is exactly like Chidori, except it has more destructive power. "Buraitou" is basically a lightning-sword formed around a flat hand, I based it on Sauza's attack from the 5th Dragonball Z Movie: 'Battle of the Strongest.' Sauza used it against Piccolo and I just thought it was really cool move. For those of you who don't recognize the title, this was the first Kooler movie.

The 'Lightning Raiders' are a group of Cloud Nekunin (Missing Nins), who's rallied together to form a tight family, like a mafia or syndicate. Let me explain more about the 'Seven Wonders of Kumo,' this is essentially an elite-group **within** the 'Lightning Raiders.' It comprises of the seven strongest members, excluding Kenji (Aniki/Elder Brother). He didn't make himself part of that group because he didn't want his strength overshadowing the others, that'll pretty much kill the whole point of the elite-group.

Lightning Raiders:

1) Kurogane (Leader)

2) 'Seven Wonder of Kumo.'

3) 100 Chuunin/Jounin Level Ninjas.

Seven Wonders (weakest to strongest):

1) Sephiria and Rinali The Twins

2) Takaharu.

3) Gin.

4) Akira.

5) Eve.

6) Yukimura.

I'll explain more on these guys, since the story will concentrate on them for a while. The twins, Sephiria and Rinali, are your cute and sexy girls, playful but very innocent and dense. Sephiria wore a white dress shirt, a red tie, a low-cut yellow vest, a black jacket, a plaid (square-shape) black & white mini-skirt, and thigh-high white stockings.

Rinali wore a white dress shirt (w/ green collar, sleeves, and a bow), a pleated green skirt, and scrunched-up knee socks. Basically, Sephiria wears an American school-girl outfit, while Rinali wears a Japanese one.

Takaharu is your comedian, the one who loudly proclaims things and poses a lot (Ginyu Force from 'DBZ,' and Franky from 'One Piece'), and he's also the largest member of the family. He has a portion of the left side of his head shaven off, and the rest of his hair is spiked and combed over to the right. His hair color is light green, and he has black eyes. For a better idea of his hair-style, just look at Razlo/Livio from the 'Trigun' manga, only with more hair on the left side. He just wore blue suspender-jeans, white sneakers, and bandages covering his stomach and hands/forearms. The words that are in capitalization means that he's emphasizing them and saying it in English.

Gin is your silent but cool type, the one who insults everyone in a dull and bland tone (Ruri from 'Martian Successor Nadesico'). He wore a Japanese school uniform, a white long-sleeve shirt (it zips up, I guess), black sleeveless shirt (underneath), white pants, and dress shoes. He wraps his Hitai-ate around his left arm, which could double as a bandana, he usually does this only when he gets really serious or mad. If anyone recognizes this school uniform, please help me out here, I need a name for it.

Akira is your everyday hero-character; loud, rude, brash, over confident, loyal, willing to die, etc (Yusuke, Luffy, Naruto, etc). But he's really shy, and harshly reprimands women who wears sexy clothes (Paulie from 'One Piece.') He wears leather all the time because he thinks it makes him look cooler, he wore a long-sleeve black shirt and black pants, and a custom-made blue trench coat. The goggles he wears are the same ones that Cloud from 'Final Fantasy: Advent Children' wore at the beginning of the movie, except the lens are yellow instead of black.

Eve is the female protagonist of the family, she's intelligent, beautiful, sarcastic, and kicks ass (Faye from 'Cowboy Bebop). Haven't decided on the hair-style yet, but her hair color is platinum and her eyes are blood red. In this chapter, she wears a red Cheongsam/Qipao (Chinese Dress) which has an image of a koi fish. Its ankle-length, sleeveless, has a mandarin collar, and has a diamond-shaped cut in the middle, revealing the curves of her breasts. The dress-portion is split really far at both sides, showing a lot of leg, and she also wore red elbow-length gloves and black fishnet stockings to match the outfit.

Yukimura is your overly-cheerful type but when the going gets tough, he's definitely a force to reckon with. Basically he's like Fai from 'Tsubasa Chronicles.' Peculiar thing is that I modeled his head after Yukimura Seiichi from 'Prince of Tennis.' He always wears really fancy clothes, here he was wearing a Black Harmony Embroidered Silk Frock Coat, a White Dress Shirt, an Ivory Tie, Black Business Pants, Black Dress Shoes, and frameless rectangle-shaped glasses.

(Jus type in "Black Harmony Embroidered Silk Frock Coat" in a search engine to see the suit, it's really nice. Wish I could afford something like that.)

Kurogane is your character who appears cold, evil, and distant, but in reality he's a big softie (Zoro from 'One Piece' and Kurogane from 'Tsubasa Chronicles'). He wore a white/blue boxing robe ('Rurouni Kenshin' Sanosuke's shirt), white/blue boxing shorts, black gloves (brass knuckles), and dark blue circle-shaped sunglasses. He has green eyes and spiky blonde & black hair; (picture River from 'Black Cat' because the hair style is **exactly** like that). His Hitai-ate is wrapped around his waist, like a championship belt. I purposely named him Kurogane, so I could use all those funny names that Faye uses in 'Tsubasa Chronicles,' I just love those little nicknames.

I'll come up with more detailed descriptions of all my original characters later, including Ranma, since I need to get a better image of how they'll look and if they'll fit the character that I've chosen for them. Obviously Ranma is pretty easy, but the others are much harder since I don't have an image already made to base them on.

I might as well comment on the heroes' clothing too, just so I could remember in the future. Ranma was wearing his white/black leather jacket, a silver kung-fu shirt, black pants, kung-fu sandals, and silver oval-shaped sunglasses.

Natsumi's kimono fairly resembles a short dress, this is so that she could run, kick, and generally move around without feeling constricted. Its color is light gray with a black obi (belt), and it has orange sun patterns all around.

Haruko wore a small turquoise tanktop (shows her bellybutton), short white cargo-pants, a blue jean jacket, black leather gloves, and black boots. She's fairly developed for a twelve-year old, so that tanktop won't be wasted on her.

I'll be changing the outfits of my characters regularly, mostly because I want to imagine them in different outfits. I refuse to believe that people will be stuck wearing the same clothing day in and day out, it's bound to get smelly. I'll be setting a pattern for the outfits though, like Ranma always wears Chinese clothing, plus his leather jacket and sunglasses. Natsumi wears traditional Japanese clothing like yukata and kimono, except it's been altered to make it more sexy, revealing more skin than it should. Haruko wears basic teenager clothes, tight shirt, short pants, skirt, or dress, etc.


	9. The Land of Water

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 9 – The Land of Water **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Hyuuga Natsumi, and Uchiha Haruko, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** In this chapter, the trio will enter a destroyed Kirigakure… (This is more of a filler chapter, so please excuse the nonsense writing)

* * *

"characters talking"

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

Still sailing across the sea, Natsumi gently put a blanket on the sleeping Haruko, and then sat back down next to Ranma. When noticing his distracted face, she waved her hand in front of it to bring him back to reality.

"Huh?" He broke out of his daze, then jerked at the hand in his face, "What's up? Are we there yet?"

"No, we're still quite far from our destination," She responded, "I just wanted to know what you were thinking about, you were out of it for quite awhile."

"Oh, I was just thinking about Haruko-chan. Did you see what happened to her during the last fight…" Ranma told her.

"Finally it's about time, your stubbornness can be so irritating," Natsumi told him, "I was wondering when you'd finally comment on what happened to her back there. I was amazed myself when I saw it, I just couldn't believe my eyes."

He nodded and laid down on the boat to look at the stars, "Just what in the world is this girl? Her injuries, every single one of them, they just instantly healed……" He slowly trailed off when he saw Natsumi take out a camera… "Unbelievable, are you really doing what I think you're doing? Is this really the right time for your perverse hobby?"

Natsumi giggled as she took several pictures of cute, sleeping Haruko, "I can't help it," she quietly squealed as she continued taking pictures, "She's so adorable! Kya, what a little cutie!" After a few more snapshots, she put away her camera and turned her attention back to Ranma, "Okay, I'm done. Back to the matter of Haruko-chan and her mysterious power… and my photography is not perverted!"

"Pft, whatever you say Natsumi," Ranma said, _'…But you're the sick freak who's taking pictures of a sleeping young girl.'_ Natsumi tapped her chin while in deep thought, "Hmmm… let's review a little, shall we. Besides her unnatural healing ability, there's also the fact that Haruko was able to use Katon-jutsus with her Mizu-Bunshins a few days back. That was certainly an incredible sight to see," She stretched her back and tiredly yawned. Ranma's eyes slightly widened in surprise, "I didn't think you noticed, you didn't say anything."

"How could anyone not notice, and I just didn't mention it because I didn't have an explanation for it. Why bother talking about something if you don't even know what happened, it'll only lead to more confusion and questions, and that will only lead to headaches and migraines," Natsumi then laid down on the bench and covered herself with a blanket, "In any case, it's getting late, we should talk about this more when we're both refreshed. Oyasumi Nasai, Ranma-dono."

"Oyasumi (Good Night)," Ranma replied as he continued to stare at the stars, _'Oh man, so many things going on at once. Haruko-chan, Akira and Gin, those other people, and I don't even know if the person I'm looking for is even at Kirigakure anymore, hell I'm not sure if he's still alive. It's not like I have any other options though, when it comes to questions, he's the one with all the answers.'_

Why did things have to be so hard, couldn't life just be easy for once?

"Oh well, I might as well go to sleep too," He muttered sleepily, as he closed his eyes.

* * *

"What in the world…?" Natsumi breathed out, as they closed in on the Mizu no Kuni (Land of Water). The island… it was…

"Ewww……" Haruko mumbled under her breath. Why would anyone want to live in such a yucky place…

"What the hell," Ranma said in shock, "Why is the island…" He just couldn't understand it, Mizu no Kuni was suppose to be beautiful, filled with life and color but this…

The island was completely pitch-black, even in broad daylight, scorched beyond belief. Plants, trees, even the ground, nearly everything was burnt to a crisp. The ferry conductor did mention that the island was recently under attack, but something of this magnitude would require an army to do.

"Come on, let's hurry up I want to know what the hell's going on over there," Ranma hastily said as he started on some hand-seals, "Fuuton…!"

Thanks to the extra boost from the powerful wind-jutsu, they arrived at island in a few seconds. Hopping out of the boat, Ranma looked around incredulously, this was insane…

"Ahem…" He turned around at the sound of a throat clearing, and saw Natsumi looking at him with an expectant look. "Oh yeah," He quickly made his way back over, and helped Natsumi and Haruko out of the boat, "Please, watch your step ladies." His mother always did tell him that it was a man's duty to help a woman out, whatever the situation.

"Ranma-dono, didn't you tell me that this place was suppose to be an island paradise," Natsumi commented as she held Haruko's hand, "Just exactly, whose paradise is this suppose to be for. Not even insects would be happy living here."

"This is all wrong," Ranma frowned, and looked around at his surroundings, "It's not supposed to be this way, just who could have done all this…"

The moment he said that, several figures appeared out of nowhere, surrounding them. They appeared to be Mist-nins, judging by their uniforms and Hitai-ates, unfortunately they didn't look too friendly or happy. "Maybe these guys are here to tell us," Haruko said, then stepped back when they all took out weapons, "…Or maybe they just want to kill us."

Ranma waved his hand dismissively and started to walked towards one of them, "Look guys, we don't want any trouble, we just want some…" He was interrupted when the mist-nin threw a kunai at his face, which he easily plucked out of the air, "…Okay, I tried to handle the situation the diplomatic way, now let's do this my way."

He quickly threw the kunai into the air, and started on some hand-seals, "I suggest you guys don't move, I still don't have the hang of accuracy with this jutsu." The sky darkened as hundreds of kunai suddenly showered the ground, all of them landing around the three leaf-ninjas.

Looking around, Ranma was satisfied at the results, "Man, I amaze even myself at times. All those kunai and not a single person was hit, but that's mostly 'cause you guys weren't stupid to try to dodge them. That was just a warning jutsu, now are you going to listen to us or not?"

One of the mist-ninja sneered and irately kicked a kunai out of the ground, which instantly 'poofed' into smoke. "Screw you, ya punk bastard. Attack!" Ranma just smirked as all the mist-ninja quickly charged them, "Now how did you figure out the second part of my plan."

Ranma quickly squatted down to dodge a punch, and hopped up to head-butt the ninja in the jaw. Ranma then spin-kicked him across the jaw to send him flying away, and then ducked underneath a flying kick and performed a reverse spin-kick to catch this ninja in the chest as he passed over. _'Two…'_ Ranma bent over backwards, to avoid a wide hook punch, then grabbed the ninja's arm and swung him around and chucked him right into a large group of people who were rushing towards him. He then flipped onto his hands and started spinning towards the group, kicking them all in the face as they were getting back up. _'Ten… talk about easy, what chumps.'_

Natsumi, with her Byukugan activated, quickly used a palm-strike which caught a ninja right in the nose, then jumped onto his shoulder to avoid a double-charge from two other ninjas who inadvertently hit their comrade. As he was thrown off his feet, she quickly jumped off him, twisted her body around upside-down, and used Jyuuken to grab the two ninjas by the side of their neck and put them to sleep. _'Three…'_ She quickly palm-struck upwards to deflect an oncoming punch, and jumped up to knee him in the face then turn around to perform a spin-kick, with the same leg, and hit him across the face. _'Four…'_ She then caught the wrists of two ninjas as they tried to punch her from behind and pulled them in front of her, then used palm-strikes with both her hands, and hit them right in the stomach sending them tumbling away. _'Six…'_ Finally, she rapidly spun her body around, releasing chakra, and used Kaiten on the remaining ninjas and sent them all flying into the charred dirt, _'That makes ten, not too bad of a work-out.'_

While the two more experienced ninjas easily took care of their opponents, the third younger member of the group was having a bit of trouble. Haruko punched a ninja right in the neck then jumped up to knee him in the side of his head. However, another ninja quickly made his way towards her as she was still in mid-air and used a drop-kick to send her flying across the air. _'Too fast… I couldn't see him…!'_ As her body was harshly skidding on the ground, a third ninja ran over to her and kicked her right in the stomach sending her towards two other ninjas who punched her in the face at the same time, and sent her flying straight in the sky. _'Damn it to hell… why am I losing to these people…?'_

The two ninjas who initiated the attack jumped into the air to continue their assault on the young girl, while the other two stood on the ground preparing to use a jutsu. Before they could let loose, they were immediately knocked out by two blurs, who then jumped up to knock the two airborne ninjas back onto the ground.

"And that makes twelve!" The jounin leaf-ninja both declared. Ranma grabbed Haruko and cradled her in his arms, then gently set her down on the ground when they landed.

"Are you okay, Haruko-chan?" Natsumi asked worriedly, and sighed in relief when the girl nodded. "She'll be fine," Ranma commented as he lightly ran his hand over her stomach, causing her to loudly giggle, "It tickles!" He grinned and tickled her some more before picking her up in his arms, "It wasn't so bad, just some minor bruises here and there, they're already healed so let's be on our way." Natsumi nodded as they walked through the groaning and moaning bodies on the floor, and she looked around sheepishly, "We really did a number of these guys, didn't we?"

Ranma was about to agree when he was interrupted by the sound of clapping, they turned to the side and saw a shadowy figure near the trees. "Very impressive, I didn't expect such young shinobi to be so strong," The figure complimented, "Taking out 24 of my men is no easy task, yet you managed to do so in a matter of seconds."

"Don't you mean 25, Haruko-chan took one out too," Ranma corrected. The figure just waved his hand dismissively at Haruko, who puffed up her cheeks in anger, "Oh yes, yes, the young girl did quite well as well… against one of my men, but I'm mostly impressed by the two of you."

"Granted my ninjas were tired from fighting all night, which explains why they performed so poorly here…" He scowled when Ranma rudely interjected with, "Nah, they just plain sucked. You got some weak-ass people here, old man."

"Please pardon my companion's manners," Natsumi apologized as she nudged Ranma in the side and politely bowed, "May I inquire as to who you are though?"

'_Rude, arrogant little brat…'_ The figure eyed Ranma with contempt and disdain, then walked out into the light to reveal his identity. "No way…" Ranma muttered in disbelief, as Haruko blinked in confusion and Natsumi looked at the man with wide eyes and shakily pointed her finger, "You… you're… Mizukage-sama!"

Mizukage just nodded in affirmation, he was about to step forward but stopped when he saw Ranma point his katana at him, "Oh, what's this now?"

"Why'd you order those ninjas to attack us?" Ranma gritted his teeth and held his sword even tighter, inside his mind was in deep turmoil, _'Talk about a worst-case scenario, we're not strong enough to deal with a Kage-level ninja. If Mizukage really wants to get rid of us, then we're as good as dead.'_

Mizukage responded by laughing heartily, confusing the trio. "That was a mistake on my part, I thought that the three of you were some criminals who escaped a few days ago," He kindly told them, but then smirked menacingly, "Believe me, if I wanted you killed then your mangled corpses would be collecting flies by now." He proved this by quickly disappearing and reappearing behind Ranma, holding a kunai to his back, "You see, this is how easily I could eliminate young ninjas like yourselves."

Due to the pressure of the threat and killing intent, Ranma was frozen in place, sweating heavily and breathing hard, _'Shit… this old geezer.'_ He could tell that Natsumi was frightened as well, since she was wide-eyed and shivering. Haruko was absolutely petrified because she was tightly hugging him, nearly crushing his neck. He seethed in anger when tears swelled up within the young girl's eyes, _'Dammit, you son of a…'_

Ranma was surprised to find the pressure of the kunai and killing intent suddenly vanish and turned his head to see… no one, where did he…? "Please, why don't the three of you join me for some late brunch. This is my way of apologizing for my hostile behavior just now," Ranma turned back to see Mizukage casually walking away as if nothing happened.

"Are you okay, Ranma-san?" Haruko asked with concern, from her position in the crook of Ranma's arm. He just slowly nodded, and wiped the tears out of her eyes, "Are you, Kaijuu-chan?" She nodded in response. "How 'bout you Natsumi," The Hyuuga prodigy just fell onto her knees and wiped her brow, "Define okay… physically everything's fine, but mentally I think I'm scarred for life."

Ranma just looked down and inwardly cursed at himself, "…All my fault, I couldn't even lift a finger…" he whispered, "Why am I still so weak?"

He looked back, when a hand touched his shoulder, and saw Natsumi gently smiling at him, "That's not true, right now you are definitely the strongest man I know. Something like this shouldn't get you down, I remember you telling me something that your father told you for this kind of situation…"

"Oh yeah, that's right…" He quietly muttered, "I quote, 'Everything is a test to make you stronger…… If you failed once, then all you have to do is take it again.' I thought it was so lame when 'tou-san said it to me the first time, but I have to admit it makes sense now. "

Ranma looked at Haruko in the eyes, and grinned, "In other words Haruko-chan. You should be happy that you've met someone stronger, because that just means you're one step closer to becoming stronger yourself…" He paused and smiled a little, "Just consider that person a big mountain, and once you've finally climbed over that tall peak, you will have undoubtly become much more powerful than you were before. Everything in life can be considered a mountain, all you have to do is make sure that you just don't fall off, otherwise you may never recover…"

Haruko just tilted her head, and cutely 'hmmed' in confusion, "But what happens if you never reach the other side of that mountain?"

The two 'adults' turned to each other and shook their heads in pity, "These young people nowadays are so cute and clueless," Ranma said, then broke into loud laughter. Natsumi just giggled and answered her, "In that case Haruko-chan, you've gained a very important person in your life, you've gained an……"

"ETERNAL RIVAL!" Ranma finished her sentence with a scream and got into a 'Nice-Guy' pose, "Yes, the mountain one seeks to surpass but can never find the strength to do so, only one such mountain can be worthy enough to be an eternal rival!" Haruko just blinked, and tilted her head once more, "Huh? Who are you giving a thumbs-up to?" she curiously asked because Ranma was currently posing for absolutely no one.

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and shrugged, "I have no idea, usually Gai-san's the one who usually does all the time, and I just felt it was an appropriate thing to do in this situation."

Natsumi just shook her head in resignation and looped her arm around Ranma's, "Come on already, let's go catch up with Mizukage-sama. While normally, I wouldn't dine with someone who just openly threatened to kill us…" She lost her composure as her tummy rumbled loudly, "…We haven't eaten in over four days! I'm getting desperate for food!"

"Me too," Haruko pouted, then happily chirped, "I hope he has chocolate!"

Ranma rubbed his stomach as it grumbled, "I just hope he has some decent grub. Man, I'm starved…"

"Hey wait," Natsumi quietly exclaimed, as she looked at Ranma holding Haruko in his arm, "Oh my god! Why didn't I notice such a cute pose!" She whipped out her camera and started snapping away while moving around to get different viewpoints. "Awww, you two look so cute together," Hearing this only made them sigh in unison, they wish they didn't do that because… "Kawaii (Cute)!" Natsumi put away her camera and took out a video camera, "Come on, do it again, sigh together again please!"

'_A mountain, huh?'_ Ranma thought as his silent torture continued, and inwardly grinned in anticipation, _'Hehehe, it's been so long since I've been out of the village that I've forgotten how big some mountains really are…'

* * *

_

After a half an hour of posing and gesturing for Natsumi's 'sick' hobby, the three leaf-ninjas finally reached Mizukage's mansion, which was looking a lot better than the rest of the island. Guess being a Kage did have its perks after all, Ranma wondered if this guy had as much paperwork as his Jiji did…

"Ah, it's about time," Mizukage said, as he watched his esteemed guests walk in, "I was beginning to think that you declined my offer."

"Oh no, we just got a little side-tracked," Ranma told him, as he glared at Natsumi who was cradling her camera while giggling. He shivered when he saw her kiss her camera and heard her whisper, "My precious…" Geez, he really needed to get this girl some psychiatric help.

"Ummm… so is this an all-you-can-eat or something?" Ranma hurriedly stammered as he saw the mountain load of food on the table. When Mizukage nodded, both he and Haruko turned to each other and shouted "Itadakimasu!" then quickly ran around the table and scooped up their favorite dishes.

For Ranma, it was… well basically everything, but mostly meat, lots and lots of meat. For dessert, he took several mincemeat pies, chicken pot pies, pumpkin pies, apple pies, blueberry pies, coconut cream pies, sweet potato pies, banana cream pies, lemon meringue pies, pecan pies, and cheesecake. Come on, who doesn't love pie! Oh, he grabbed some Moo-Moo Milk too, since you can't eat pie without milk, it's just not right.

Haruko just took some key food groups that every growing child needs, chocolate! Chocolate-chip pancakes, chocolate-chip waffles, fudge-covered meat, toast with chocolate syrup, and assorted fruits with chocolate fondue. Dessert wise, she took chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles and hot fudge, chocolate-chip cookies, chocolate pudding, a double-layer chocolate cake, a chocolate-cream pie, fudge brownies, a chocolate parfait, and a diet chocolate milkshake… a girl had to watch her figure after all.

"Wha…?" Natsumi awoke from her camera daze by the sounds of loud chewing and swallowing, and sweatdropped at the sight of Ranma and Haruko scarfing down food like no tomorrow. How embarrassing… for goodness sakes, at least **chew** your food, you freakin' animals!

"I am so sorry, Mizukage-sama. My friends have horrendous manners…" But the old man just waved away her apology, "Please miss, it does my old heart good to see young children eating so happily. Why don't you help yourself to some food as well, I'm sure you must be hungry from the long journey."

"Well, I really shouldn't but…" She drooled slightly at the sight of all that yummy food, and finally conceded when her stomach roared in protest, "But, if you insist." The gobbling of food was soon joined by a third, more elegant member… she was still a pig though, but at least she used a napkin and ate with her mouth closed. But geez, what was with all those Italian noodle dishes, different types of spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli, fettuccine, ziti, alfredo, tetrazzini, manicotti, gnocchi bake, cheesy stuffed shells, and finally pastira (macaroni cake) for dessert.

An hour later, the three ninjas finally finished their huge meals and patted their full stomachs in satisfaction. "Now that was delicious," Ranma stated as he used a toothpick to clean his teeth, "Not as good as my mom's food but even she never cooked this much. Trust me, she tried to make me full once and only ended up hurting herself."

Haruko laughed, while Natsumi just turned to Mizukage, "While this was a lovely meal, I'm sure this isn't just a social gathering, what's the real reason you called us here, Mizukage-sama?"

He cleared his throat and slid a folder over to her, "You're right ojou-sama, I did call you for a far more important matter than food…" He paused when Ranma shouted, "Nothing is more important than food, old man!" After which Natsumi shut him up, by shoving his face into one of the leftover pies, "Please continue."

"…Yes, as I was saying, I need the three of you to capture these people for me, you'll find a snapshot of each of them in that folder." Natsumi opened the folder and looked at the photos, Haruko got up to look at them over her shoulder, Ranma soon joined after cleaning his face of apple filling.

"Interesting, very much indeed…" She quietly muttered, then turned at their gracious host, "These people are Kaguyas, aren't they?"

"You have a perceptive eye, ojou-sama," Mizukage told her, "Indeed, they are Kaguyas…"

"Kaguyas? Who are they?" Haruko questioned, as Ranma just stared at the photos blankly. "They're monsters," He grumbled his breath, "I fought against a few in my lifetime, and they're really dangerous and a bitch to fight against……"

"Please young man, there's a big reward…" Mizukage was interrupted when Ranma continued. "…But… but since this is a personal request from the Mizukage, it's not like I can really refuse," He smirked and clenched his fist, "Besides, I'm not so much of a coward that I'll turn down an opportunity to beat down a real-live monster." As he said this, Ranma purposely stared at Mizukage, who just stared right back……

Haruko firmly nodded in agreement and took a huge bite out of her chocolate cake, "Hell yeah, bring it on, you dumb monsters!" she screamed with a full mouth.

Natsumi palmed her face in exasperation, "Oh lord, he corrupted her already…" She shook her head and sighed, "Just why do you want these people anyway, Mizukage-sama? I thought that Kaguyas were supposed to be left alone due to their less than friendly nature."

"Did you see the current state of the island?" Mizukage slumped down in his seat dejectedly, they nodded in response, "It was because of the Kaguyas that the island is in such a terrible condition. Those blood-thirsty animals attacked the village in the dead of night, luckily one of my ninjas managed to find out about the assault beforehand and we ambushed them before any innocents could have gotten hurt. Unfortunately the fighting spread throughout the island causing massive damages ……"

"Please, if you could help us in our dire time of need," He begged as he got on his hands and knees, "I'll reward all of you very handsomely, and Kirigakure will eternally be grateful to you."

Ranma scoffed as he got up from his seat and walked away, "Get up old man, it's not right for someone of your status to be begging." He shoved his hands into his pockets, and smirked once more, "…Anyway, we already decided what to do a long time ago."

Natsumi waited for Haruko before leaving, "What took you, little one?" Haruko just grinned cheekily as she wheeled along a shopping cart full of boxes of white-chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate cream puffs, chocolate éclairs, chocolate cream horns, chocolate-chip muffins, chocolate donuts with a variety of sprinkles, and of course Oreos! "They're all road snacks, in case I get hungry," She told the sweatdropping woman as she opened up a box of peanuts and emptied the entire contents into her mouth, _'Yummy!'_

"Hey wait, where'd you get that shopping cart…?"

A few seconds after he heard the door open and shut close, Mizukage slowly got up and wickedly smiled, "The fools actually fell for it…"

* * *

"Ranma-dono, are you sure this is the right thing to do," Natsumi asked. Ranma was currently shirtless and washing his face in a nearby stream, while Haruko was running around the trees playing with some squirrels.

"Of course not, something stinks around here and it wasn't just all that bull crap that old man was feeding us," He replied as he dried his face and put his shirt back on, "Why the hell would Mizukage need the three of us to do his dirty work, I mean come on, he alone has enough power to wipe out an entire country, nevertheless a few measly people."

"So why in the world are we doing this then?" Ranma just replied by childishly grinning, "For the fight, of course! A chance to fight against one of the strongest clans in the world, don't tell me that doesn't get your blood boiling in excitement!"

Natsumi smiled in wonder, "I have to admit, I always was curious how effective my Jyuuken would be against the so-called invincible bone structure of the Kaguyas." She then looked over at Haruko, and her eyes brightened as she took out her video camera and pressed the 'record' button, "And we already know her answer in this matter, such an energetic little girl."

Ranma ate some of the Oreos Haruko brought, and blankly looked at the woman before him giggle madly, "Seriously Natsumi, you should consider therapy…"

Haruko, in the meantime, was actually training and not playing, _'These squirrelies are pretty fast…'_ She thought as she lightly touched a squirrel's back with her left index finger, then skidded to a stop to catch three more leaves to her right, _'…Combine that with this leaf-catching training, it makes a pretty difficult exercise.'_

She then tripped over her own feet and inwardly cursed, _'Owie, stupid ankle weights, 50 pounds are really killing my legs. These 20-pound wrist weights are a big pain too…'_ She looked up and bashfully smiled as all her squirrelly friends gathered around her, chittering in worry, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Let's just continue playing okay?" The squirrels chittered and ran around again, as Haruko cutely giggled. Sometimes, it just paid off to know how to speak squirrel…

She slowly got up and tossed the leaves she caught back into the air, and started the exercise all over again, _'All this time, I've been relying too much on my chakra, ignoring everything else; Right now, I need to get my body up to par as well. My stamina, endurance, footwork, speed, arm and leg strength, hand-grips, I need to increase everything or else I'll just be a hindrance to Ranma-san and Natsumi-san……'_

Three weeks later, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Skill: Grand Fireball Technique)! Ranma yelled out and shot off a giant fireball, which was easily cut apart by a bone sword. "Oh come on…" He whined in annoyance, as he faced off against two male Kaguyas, "This is like the tenth time you've done that to my jutsus, can't you losers do anything else?"

'_Geez, we finally find these guys after 3 weeks of searching and this is what we get…'_ Ranma miserably thought, _'… So boring.'_

In an instant, Ranma quickly unsheathed his sword to block a set of triple bone claws that one of the ninjas created from his knuckles. He moved to the side to avoid a stab from a bone knife that the other one sprouted from his palm, then Ranma back-kicked him across the face, then spun around and hopped up to knee the first one in the side of his head.

After they recovered, the two Kaguya-ninjas faced off against the leaf-ninja, whose expression was that of pure determination, nothing could move this unmovable rock… They sweatdropped when his face morphed into that of pain and agony, and he started to hop up and down on one foot, while fiercely rubbing the other one, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, oh my aching leg, what are you people made of, steel!"

Ranma sat down on the floor, and took off his shoe and lifted his pants, "My poor foot and knee, you merciless demons, how could you be so heartless. Oh my god, how can…" He whimpered then looked up in astonishment, "… you be so stupid. I can't believe that you idiots actually fell for this."

The Kage-Bunshin 'poofed' away, leaving the two Kaguyas utterly confused. The real Ranma appeared behind them and quickly swung his sword, "Tempesta di Neve (Blizzard in French)!" The force of the icy gale winds threw them off their feet and nearly froze their bodies completely.

Ranma slowly walked up to the frozen-popsicles and grinned at their shivering bodies and chattering teeth, "Don't you guys agree that my technique was pretty cool!" He started laughing hysterically, "Get it, cool! Because the attack was super cold, so it's cool…" He sweatdropped when the two ice sculptures just sweatdropped and looked away (they could still move their eyeballs), "Well I thought it was pretty funny. Puns rock!"

"Only you think that, Ranma-dono," He turned around and saw Natsumi walking towards him while dragging the bodies of two people behind her, a male and female. "You won," He stated the obvious, "Was it as hard as you thought it was going to be?"

Natsumi shook her head in disappointment, "No, I didn't even need to use any of my special techniques other than Byakugan and Jyuuken. These people may be strong, but they certainly aren't smart. Who in their right mind would continuously attack a close-range fighter, known to have chakra-destroying attacks, with chakra-based weapons. All I had to do was blow up their bone weapons and the rest is history."

Ranma understandingly nodded, "Yeah, I know what you mean. These people don't know the meaning of variety, they keep using the same attacks over and over again. Come on, at least spice it up a little!" Natsumi silently agreed, but looked confused about something, "What was that you said before you used your Blizzard? Did your mother give it a new name or something?"

Ranma shook his head and smirked, "Nah, that's just how you say Blizzard in French. Kaa-chan's been giving me these French lessons for a few years because she wanted me to be bilingual…" He paused to roll his eyes and sigh, "Plus she thought it would help me pick up girls, since French is supposedly the most romantic language out there."

As Natsumi blushed at the idea of hearing compliments in the language of love, Ranma looked around worryingly. "Oi, where's Haruko-chan? You don't think she…" A loud explosion suddenly rocked the forest, causing the ground and trees to shake. "… Never mind," He mumbled as a huge cloud of smoke filled the sky, "I think it's safe to presume that she won too." Just then, Haruko walked out of the forest, carrying the body of a large man over her shoulder. You could tell she was really happy from her large grin, the strange thing was that her fist had smoke coming out of it. "Haruko-chan, what's wrong with your hand?" Natsumi asked her.

Her grin got even bigger, and she dropped the big man next to his companions, "It's my newest attack, it was because of this beauty that I won my fight." She held up her hand, the smoke around it slowly dissipating, "I call it, 'Recca Panchi (Raging Fire Punch)!' This baby can go up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, that's even hotter than a volcano…!" She paused when Ranma interjected with an impressed whistle, "Thank you, Ranma-san. The guy was using some kind of bone armor, which my regular attacks couldn't penetrate, so I used this move to melt it off then blew out a Karyuu Endan (Fire Dragon Blast) to finish him off."

"Now that's smokin'!" Ranma guffawed, while the ladies just sweatdropped and despairingly thought, _'Why, oh why did he have to learn about puns!'_

Haruko remembered something else and snapped her fingers, "Oh yeah, I gained another new weapon too…" She was cut off when a giant water dragon suddenly bursted through the trees and straight into the pile of unconscious Kaguyas, whose bodies were immediately torn apart by the violent attack. "What the hell!" Ranma shouted in shocked, as Natsumi hugged Haruko to her, "Who the fuck did that! Come out you cowardly bastard!"

They were speechless when it was the Mizukage who walked out, smirking inhumanly. "Teme (You)! Why'd you kill them, I thought you wanted them alive!" Ranma angrily screamed, he gritted his teeth in rage when Mizukage started to laugh mockingly.

"Alive? My dear boy, whoever said I wanted these savage beasts alive?" He walked towards the disembodied people, then sneered and spitted on them. Natsumi grabbed Ranma's wrist to prevent him from rushing the man, "With this marks the end of an uncouth, mentally retarded race. I don't even see why Kami-sama created such creatures, they were absolutely useless in their time among the living…"

"What do you mean the end…" Haruko curiously inquired, as she hugged Natsumi, "Aren't there more of them around?"

Mizukage laughed insanely, silencing all three ninjas, "No, the idiots used all of their people to attack the village, and in an instant every single of them was wiped off the face of this planet. Just like someone wiping off shit from the bottom of their shoe."

"You heartless bastard, How could you!" Ranma screamed out in fury, as he ripped himself out of Natsumi's grip and rushed the man. But he didn't do much as Mizukage simply sidestepped and tripped him up, Ranma raised his head from the ground and saw the skewered head of one of the Kaguyas, and felt tears come to his eyes. He slowly got up and got into the older man's face, "Why…" He sobbingly asked, "What did they ever do to deserve this?"

Mizukage's face became emotionless as he explained, "Because they were useless, they deserved death because they failed in their purpose in life. They failed to be the perfect living weapons, these barbarians were supposed to be invincible yet they kept losing every important battle they were ever in. Combat geniuses my ass, what's the point in keeping a weapon if it's too stupid to know what to do. These morons foolishly attacking the village just gave me the perfect excuse to deal with them once and for all …"

He took out a large wad of cash and dropped it on the floor in front of Ranma, "Here you go, your reward for assisting in eliminating a nuisance," He smirked as he patted the boy's head. "Now be a good little boy and don't spend it all on candy and toys," Mizukage mocked before walking away, laughing cruelly.

Ranma blankly looked at the man's back before setting the money on fire with a Katon-jutsu. "I don't want your tainted money," He growled, as his eyes glowed red, "I just want your head."

"…Haruko-chan, Mizukage is an example of a mountain you might not ever surpass," Natsumi told the young girl, "However, that doesn't qualify him to be a rival… a rival is only someone whom you respect, admire, and recognize to be a great person."

She let the girl go and activated her Byukugan to full power, causing the veins to pulsate. "But that man is lower than trash, and deserves nothing but a slow and painful death…"

* * *

The next day, Ranma was aimlessly walking around town. _'This is why…'_ He thought to himself, _'This is the reason why I've kept my promise to 'kaa-chan all this time. I've seen what death does to everyone, I didn't want to cause people to mourn and cry for a lost one because of me. I didn't want to be someone who found pleasure in murder and death. I… I just didn't want to become like **that** man……'_

"…B-but what can I do in this situation," He cried out, and bowed his head, "What am I suppose to do now, 'kaa-chan?" His body shook as he quietly sobbed, a clutter of a can caused him to look up in surprise. "Who's there! Come out here now!" He strengthened his words by taking out a kunai, _'How could I let someone get the jump on me…'_

A young boy with white hair, green eyes, and two red dots on his forehead walked out of the alleyway. "You…" Ranma looked at him stunned, "You're a Kaguya?" He shakily smiled when the boy nodded, then started crying again, this time in relief, "Thank you god, so much for giving these people a second chance." He knelt down, and gestured for the boy to come over which he did, "What's your name?" The boy shook his head. "Do you have a name?" He nodded. "Can you even talk?" He nodded again.

Ranma just sighed in aggravation, "This is getting me nowhere…" He raised an eyebrow when he noticed something strange about the boy, _'Hmmm… breathing is shallow, erratic heartbeat, eyes look glazed over, sweating profusely, abnormal fatigue state, that's odd I'm not familiar with these symptoms.'_ He took out a large chocolate bar, and held it out, "Here, I bet you're hungry aren't you?" He gently smiled when the boy cautiously grabbed it out of his hand, and stared at it warily, "Don't worry, it's just chocolate. A friend of mine loves the stuff."

"While you're eating that, do you mind if I look at something on your body? It's very important," The boy slowly nodded, while taking a bite out of the candy bar. Ranma took the boy's shirt off and was shocked at what he discovered, _'What's with all these bruises and cuts? It's a miracle this kid is still alive after all these wounds.'_ He started a healing-jutsu, and the boy flinched away in fright, "Oh, don't worry this'll help you, just trust me okay… please?"

The child reluctantly nodded again, and Ranma handed him another candy bar, seeing that he finished off the first one. He began healing the boy's body while examining him at the same time, to see what else was wrong. _'Everything seems fine now, he was just malnourished and his wounds weren't properly taken care of…'_ His thoughts took another turn when he closely examined the boy's chest, _'… What the… this kid has a disease? I've never come across this one before though, it's totally new to me.'_

'_What am I going to do, I have no way of treating him. Dammit, the last hope for a near-extinct clan, and he just might die anyway,'_ Ranma's eyes widened when he remembered something that could save the child's life, _'…… 'Kaa-chan, Tsunade-chama, please forgive me but I'm going to have to use that kinjutsu the two of you taught me. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures.'_

A few years before Noriko had met Arashi, both she and her mentor developed a secret medical jutsu that would have revolutionized the medical industry. Unfortunately, they remembered how selfish and petty human beings were, if word of this jutsu came out, then every single person in the world would come to them begging for treatment. Knowing what desperation could do to a person, they feared for the safety of those around them. Because of this reason, they decided to seal the jutsu away forever…

Of course, Tsunade and Noriko taught it to Ranma anyway, just because they wanted him to know everything that might help him out later in real world.

"Kid, I'm about to do something that'll save your life," Ranma calmly told him, "But I can't do this without your permission…" After a few moments, the boy hesitantly nodded and Ranma smiled, "Don't worry, this won't hurt you in the least."

He bit the end of his index finger and drew a seal over the boy's heart with his own blood, then he started some hand seals and placed his palm over the seal. The blood seal started to glow, and slowly became ingrained into his skin, before disappearing. "Now remember this carefully, when the time comes, that seal will resurface again and when it does, you'll be set free of your curse forever…" Ranma then looked down and reached into his pocket, "Here I thought you…" He trailed off when he saw that his patient was gone, "I thought you might want a lollipop."

"Geez, it was sour apple too," Ranma shrugged and popped the lollipop into his mouth, "Oh well, as long as I know the kid's alright now…" He stopped when he saw a familiar candy wrapper on the ground, and bent down to pick it up. He smiled as he inwardly read what was written on it, "Kimimaro, that's my name."

A short while later, he went back to the forest to get his friends and perhaps search for his elusive informant, but when he came upon the campsite, all he found was a destroyed wreck. "Was it Mizukage…!" Ranma wondered in worry as he looked around to see several trees, the ground, and even rocks cut apart. Just what the hell happened… he then heard angry yelling and the sound of metal clashing nearby and quickly ran towards it.

Ranma jumped from tree to tree, followings the sounds, and eventually saw several figures fighting each other. He easily recognized Natsumi and Haruko, but was surprised to see who the other two figures were, _'Talk about lucky, I don't even have to look for them now. Uh-oh…'_ He quickly shot off a basic Katon-jutsu and hit the side of the man's giant sword which altered its course, causing it to narrowly miss its target, _'That was close. Sheesh, I see his style hasn't changed much, just pure destruction.'_

He leapt through the forest to land right in the middle of Natsumi, Haruko and the other two ninjas. "Well, well, I didn't think you two were still alive, usually it's so noisy and messy when you're around so I presumed that you both died…" Ranma chuckled, as both the man's and boy's eyes widened in shock.

"You… why the hell are you here……?"

"…Ranma-san?"

After awhile of silent shock, the larger man smirked in amusement and put away his sword, "I just didn't feel like going out, but you're right it has been too quiet lately, in other words dull and boring. Maybe I should shake things up a little."

The smaller boy just gently smiled, "Ranma-san, we were in hiding about a few days ago, but then **he** decided to go out and watch the battle between the Kaguyas and Mist-ninjas.

"Really now? That's not like you, you usually do more than just watch. Could it be that you've lost your blood-thirstiness!" Ranma sarcastically gasped as he walked up to the older man, who just scoffed at the allegation. "Shut the hell up, there was just no point in me entering the war-zone," He cackled darkly and lick his lips, "After all, they were doing such a wonderful job of covering the island with all that delicious red blood. I felt it was only **polite** not to interfere in their fun…"

Ranma just rolled his eyes, while Haruko and Natsumi continued to look on in confusion and a little bit of fear. Not that they were scared or anything, oh no, but every aspect about this man, from the way he dressed to the way he talked seemed to scream out death……

"This is rather convenient though, now I don't have to waste my time blindly searching for you guys," Ranma smirked as he patted the boy's head while the man grinned maniacally, "In any case, it's been a long while…… Zabuza-san."

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Author's Comments (R&R)

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There we go! Momochi Zabuza is finally in the story! At first I wanted to introduce him and Haku fighting against some mist-ninjas but I thought this way sounded a little bit better, at least it set the stage.

I don't really have much to say about this chapter, other than that the next chapter will reveal more information on Mizukage. I didn't really like this chapter, it felt too much like a filler, but hey at least I got to name all those yummy foods. I apologize for that by the way, but I absolutely adore food and I simply got carried away, and trust me it wasn't easy finding out the names of those pasta dishes. Oh yeah, Natsumi ate around 75 courses, Haruko 125 courses, and Ranma ate the most with 200 courses.

That medical seal on Kimimaro, you won't be seeing the effects of that happening in **this** story because this is going to be about Ranma's life. Nearly everything that happened in canon, including Kimimaro's "first" appearance will happen in my other story, which will basically be a rewrite of Naruto. But that story doesn't look like it'll come to light until way, way, way later, so just be patient.

Also I know that philosophy of losing made no sense, but in a way it is true, at least to me it is. If you lose, then that just means you just have to get better. And yes, I know the mountain analogy was cheesy and lame, but I couldn't really think of anything else.

Oh yeah, and don't expect Ranma to use puns all that often, I'm not really too good with them as you can tell. The most I can do is probably rip off other people's…

As for the medical kinjutsu, just think about it, if there was a medicine that could cure any and all diseases, and supply of it was low, what do you think everyone is going to do… they're going to start attacking people who do have the medicine and take theirs. You can deny it all you want, but everyone knows that people would be rioting in the streets if word got out that there was a cure for cancer but there was only a limited amount.

Right now, I'll explain the training that Haruko was doing, in this exercise you basically use only one hand, and in this case she was using her left hand. You have to touch a squirrel's back with any of your fingers, while at the same time catching leaves before they touch the ground. She alternated between hands everyday to balance things out, this training may sound simple but she did this without the usage of chakra, spent most of the day and night doing it, and to top it off she was weighing 50 pound ankle weights and 20 pound wrist weights.

I'll explain more about Ranma's fear of killing later on, I'm surprised that I actually thought this up, it ties in so well with everything too. Plus, it makes sense that's more important. As for why it took three weeks for 2 and 1/2 elite ninjas to find some people, they procrastinated a lot, it's not like the Mizukage really set up a deadline. Ranma and Natsumi wanted to pick up some trinkets for their family, and Haruko just loved to shop like any 12-year old girl does, plus they toured around a lot even though nearly everything was a wreck.


	10. The Shinobi of Kirigakure

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 10 – The Shinobi of Kirigakure **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Hyuuga Natsumi, and Uchiha Haruko, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** Flashback, Old Friends, New Enemies…?

* * *

"characters talking"

'_characters thinking'

* * *

_

"Alright, we finally found these guys, so here's what we're going to do…" Natsumi knelt down and began drawing up a strategy on the ground, until a tap on the shoulder forced her to stop and look up. "What?" She asked Ranma, who simply pointed at the five Kaguyas… or at least the spot where they last stood, "Ummm, Natsumi… they sorta heard you and ran away."

"……!" With her right eye twitching, she quickly activated her Byukugan and began scanning the area, "Alright, two of them went towards the forest, two others went ran to the mountain area, and the last one went to the lake." She started running after the two in the mountains and shouted back, "Well, don't just stand there like a couple of stoned monkeys, go after the rest!"

"Well, you heard the lady, Kaijuu-chan," Ranma told the small girl, as they ran towards the opposite direction, to the forest area, "Go after that guy who went towards the lake, and be extra super-duper careful." He then quickly disappeared, leaving the young Uchiha all by her lonesome… _'Just the way I like it,'_ Haruko thought with an excited grin on her face.

Within a span of a minute, she quickly reached the lake and looked around for her elusive target. "Where is he?" Haruko confusedly whispered, "Did Natsumi-san get it wrong?" Just then a strong shoulder-ram threw her body roughly to the ground. She managed to roll out of the way just before a huge foot stomped on her, then quickly jumped back to her feet and laid eyes on the biggest person she's ever seen.

'_Holy… this guy's huge, he has to be at least double my size!'_ She was brought out of her shocked state when the guy suddenly bursted into laughter, "Hey, what's so funny!" She furiously shouted with a red face, which only made him laugh even harder and louder.

"…Hahahahaha, I can't believe, those two idiots sent a weak shrimp like you after me, ME! Someone as puny as you wouldn't even make a good appetizer for me," His mocking response just made her grow redder in anger, and she balled her right hand into a fist. The man's laughter was interrupted when a small fist harshly impacted with his cheek, and his large body was flung into the lake water.

"Who's the weak shrimp now, YOU FAT LARDASS!" She shouted in rage, then quickly started on some hand-seals, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Skill: Fire Skill: Mystical Fire Flowers Technique)!" The mini-fireballs were all aimed at the quickly rising shadow in the lake, when the water suddenly exploded, immediately extinguishing the attack.

Haruko flipped backwards to avoid being hit by the water, and saw the Kaguya menacingly walk out with bone slowly covering his body, _'What the hell?'_ She thought in shock once again.

"You little bitch," He growled out, and clenched his teeth in smoldering anger, "Normally, I wouldn't even think of using this jutsu against someone like you, but I might as well show you something good before I send you into Death's hands." He narrowed his eyes, and forced the bones to grow faster, "Besides, you've really pissed me off just now."

Haruko nervously gulped at the sight of the bone armor and the feeling of his strong chakra. _'Oh god, please let my training be enough,'_ She silently prayed as the Kaguya quickly charged her, but she just managed to swiftly dodge to the side, avoiding him. Skidding to a stop, he shot himself back at her and tried to tackle her, only to have the same results happen. He quietly snarled as he went on the offensive and began attacking with punches, kicks, and the occasional head-butts. Unfortunately for him, time after time, she managed to escape by simply moving away, his anger reached its peak when she flipped off his head to avoid a head-butt.

'_This is so cool…'_ Haruko thought in amazement, _'My body isn't feeling the least bit tired, and I've been running around at full speed for a good 15 minutes without chakra. Guess I owe those squirrelies some nuts, hmmm… wonder what kind they'd like?'_ As she was contemplating on what to feed her forest friends, she didn't notice her opponent's eyes widening as he saw an opening.

"Gotcha…" He quietly barked, then created a bone sword from his shoulder and threw it right behind Haruko as she was running backwards. He jumped high in the air, just as she tripped over the imbedded weapon, and came down with a raised fist and slammed it into her exposed stomach. "Ahhhhhh!" She screamed out in pain, as her body folded up and her eyes slightly rolled back. Just then her body started to glow blue, _'What…'_ The Kaguya thought as her body melted into water, _'…Mizu-Bunshin?'_

He turned around at the sound of a sharp sound, and got a face full of Goukakyuu (Grand Fireball). Haruko looked on with wide eyes, as the giant just slightly tipped over and then straighten his body back up like nothing happened. "No way!" She loudly protested, "How the hell are you still standing! What the freak, you're not even hurt!" She added when she saw that he didn't even have a scorch mark on his face.

'_Damn this girl, just wait till I get my hands on her,'_ He got a blissful-look on his face as he imagined himself beating on her bloody corpse, and started drooling a little in anticipation. Haruko, looking at this with wide, shock eyes, read his intentions wrong, "Oh my god, you're a pervert who's planning on taking advantage of my sweet, innocent body!"

"Grrrrrr… die, you little…!" He yelled as he ran towards the suddenly very-nervous girl, "Eeepppppp! Get away from me, you pedophile freak!" She screamed as she threw several shuriken and kunai at him, which just bounced off his bone armor, _'Oh come on, give me a break here.'_

"Goukakyuu!" She then shot off the biggest fireball she could manage at the time, and succeeded in stopping the Kaguya in his tracks. But when the smoke cleared, her jaw dropped when she saw him just holding out his palms in front of him, granted they were a little burnt but other than that…

'_Oh no… I'm definitely gonna get raped by this sick lolicon hentai,'_ Tears slowly made their way down her cheeks as she dramatically contemplated her fate as a play-thing. She then got into an equally dramatic 'Sailor Moon' pose and shook her head in denial, "No, I cannot allow myself to be taken hostage by this perverted maniac. For I am…" Dun, dun, dun, "Sailor Shi-shi chan!"

'_That's right, Sailor Moon would never give up, right!'_ Haruko furiously thought, then scrunched up her face and frowned when she remembered an important detail, _'Chotto matte (wait a moment), Sailor Moon **would** give up against a freak like this! Ummm… okay, in that case, Sailor Mars…!'_

"What the hell is wrong with this girl…?" The baffled Kaguya wondered as he saw the girl posing and talking to herself, "Geez, I hate anime-watching idiots, she probably cosplays too." He shook his head in pity for the 'girl with no life' and jumped high into the air, then shot off several bones shards from his arms and upper body, "Take this you no-life loser brat!"

Haruko was brought out of her 'Sailor Senshi' fantasy when she heard him scream and looked at the barrage of sharp bones with wide eyes, _'Crap, I can't dodge them all,'_ She could only stare helplessly as they closed in on her……

The hundreds of bone punctured the hard ground leaving nothing but smoke and debris to fill the air, "That takes care of that nuisance…" Just as he turned around to leave, he felt something quickly pass by his head and focused his sight on the giant bone that suddenly appeared in the floor to block his path. His eyes widened in shock when he heard a tiny giggle and looked back to see a perfectly unharmed Haruko, leaning on one of the imbedded bones, smirking arrogantly while twirling another bone in her right hand.

"How? You couldn't have escaped, how did you…?" He wasn't able to finish his question, as she quickly chucked the bone shard at his feet forcing him to jump back. Then with much faster speed then before, Haruko launched herself at him and flipped around to double-stomped him in the eyes, hurling him straight into the ground.

"Dammit…" Pushing himself out of the dirt, he looked up to see the insufferable brat standing over him, but there was something different about her… _'Wait, her eyes!'_

"I see by your shocked expression, you finally noticed hentai-kun," Haruko cheerfully stated as she gazed at her enemy with her brand new Sharingan eyes. Right before the shower of bones were about to impale her, she saw them suddenly slow down to a snail's pace. Not willing to be ungrateful, she quickly took advantage of this apparent gift from the heavens, and just twisted and turned her body around so that the bones harmlessly passed by her. As the bones stabbed the ground and debris surrounded her, she took the time to think about what just happened when she looked at her hands and was astonished to see chakra paths instead of regular skin. At that moment, she realized that her long awaited bloodline had finally been activated, unfortunately she didn't have time to experiment since she had a butt to kick…

"Nya-nya, nya-nya, nya-nyahhhhh…" Haruko mocked while dancing around, waving her arms and shaking her booty, "Bwahahahaha, now evil-doer, feel the heavenly vengeance from ummm… heaven!" She then rushed the big man and strongly punched his chest only to hit the incredibly hard bone armor, which was apparently still intact. "Ow!" She screamed as she held her bruised hand and looked up nervously, "Uhhh… you see, I was just joking about that hentai-kun comment… uh-oh…" She softly let out as she saw a fist come her way, and immediately bent over backwards to avoid the punch.

Haruko quickly grabbed the extended arm and flipped herself around to land on it, then took the four small steps to his face and lightly jumped forward to harshly kick the side of his head, then ricocheted off it. Landing a far distance away from the stumbling giant, she wiped off her tanktop and short pants, and clasped her hands together. "Sorry, hentai-kun but I'm getting tired of playing around, it's pretty boring. Plus both my sempai are probably done and waiting for me, so I'm gonna have to beat you now," She apologized in advance and made some hand-seals, unknown to the man.

'_What's she planning to do?'_ His eyes widened as he saw smoke emitting from her fist, _'Well whatever it is, she can't penetrate my armor!'_

"You'll never be able to beat my invincible armor, so just try it, you little punk!" He challenged her, and she only smirked in response, "Well, since you asked so politely," and she quickly ran towards the man, becoming nothing but a blur to him.

"Recca Panchi (Raging Fire Punch)!" She roughly shoved her smoky fist right into his guy, and much to his surprise his armor started melting immediately at contact, _'No, it can't be… no… NOOO!'_ He inwardly and outwardly screamed in pain as he could feel the burning sensation in his abdomen, then she started rapidly punching his entire body, melting off the rest of his armor.

Within a matter of seconds, his precious armor was nothing more than melted goo covering his burnt body and dripping down to the floor. "It's not over yet, you damn loser pervert!" Haruko declared as she started another set of seals, "Katon: Karyuu Endan (Fire Skill: Fire Dragon Blast)!"

The once mighty Kaguya could only shiver in fear and pain as the giant fire dragon closed in on him at a high speed, _'How pathetic, getting beaten by a brat… a girl brat at that,'_ was his final thought before he lost consciousness.

Deactivating her Sharingan, Haruko dropped down to her knees and just gawked at the knocked-out heavily damaged man in mute shock, she won… she actually won! By herself too! "Woooooo!" She cheered loudly and started jumping up and down in glee, "I won, I won, I won!" She stopped as she realized something, "Hey wait, this wasn't your ordinary ninja either, I actually beat a monster……!"

Her one-person celebration was cut off when she noticed a large shadow looming over her and turned around to see her arch foe standing right behind her! "Impossible," she was about to high-tail it out of there, when the Kaguya opened his mouth and spoke…… and boy, was she surprised at what she heard.

"Haruko-chan, did you finish eating all those chocolate treats you took before, you're going to get a stomachache from all that junk food," Natsumi's voice chided, which caused the poor girl's hair to stand up, "What the hell! Why are you talking like Natsumi-san!"

She struggled when the guy grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her, "Wake up, Haruko-chan, wake up…"

"No, let me go! Help, Ranma-san, Natsumi-san, somebody please help me……!

* * *

"……HELP!" Haruko shouted as she woke up from her flashback dream/nightmare. She was breathing hard and sweating heavily as she gazed upon the worried faces of Natsumi and Ranma, "Oi, Kaijuu-chan, you okay?" 

"Haruko-chan, what's wrong sweetie?" Natsumi asked with concern, "You were tossing around while you were sleeping, did you have a bad dream?" Haruko panted some more, before shaking her head, "Nuh-uh it was a good dream actually… well it was, until that stupid hentai giant started talking like you."

"Eh!" Natsumi shrilled in shock, her, a hentai giant? She turned her head and glared at Ranma who was on the floor laughing hysterically.

"…Hahahahaha! A hentai giant, that description suits you perfectly Natsumi!" Ranma proclaimed before she stepped on his face in a fit of anger, "Be quiet, it's not funny! If anyone's the pervert, it's you Ranma-dono!"

"Shut the hell up already!" The bandaged-covered man yelled out from behind them, he was laying on the ground with a bamboo coolie hat in his hand, "How the hell is a guy suppose to go to sleep with all you brats yelling like retarded kids! Now shut your damn mouths before I shut them up myself!" Zabuza covered his face with the bamboo hat again, to shield his eyes from the moonlight, and almost immediately fell asleep.

"Cranky, isn't he?" Haruko muttered as she wiped her face of sweat, and drank some water for her parched throat. "Bah…" Ranma waved his hand dismissively, "Don't worry about him, he's usually cold, silent, and emotionless, but like any other person even **he'll** lose his temper when you keep him awake." He walked over to Haku and adjusted the boy's blanket to tuck him in better.

"Very true, speaking of sleep, we should get some ourselves," Natsumi said as she zipped open her sleeping bag and wiggled in, "Come on, Haruko-chan, tonight you're sleeping with me since you're having bad dreams."

Haruko blushed in embarrassment, _'I'm not a little kid…'_ She ignored the fact that she still was a little kid, and reluctantly got into the sleeping bag. After all, she didn't want to be rude and refuse the kind offer, but in truth she actually liked sleeping with the Hyuuga prodigy because, "Natsumi-san's so warm…" she quietly whispered as she cuddled with the older girl and drifted off to sleep, "… Just like mama."

Natsumi smiled warmly at the girl's sleepy murmurings and kissed her cheek, "Good night Haruko-chan, may you have sweet dreams…" She then frowned when she felt a perverted gaze on her being, and looked up to see Ranma looking at them with an all-too-familiar leer. She quickly picked up a semi-large rock nearby and strongly threw it at his head. _'Girls in bed, this would make a great issue for Icha-Icha…'_ Ranma's private thoughts were halted when the rock hit him between the eyes, instantly knocking him out.

Natsumi scoffed in disgust, but smirked amusingly, "Who's the pervert now… hentai-dono."

* * *

"What the hell… how long can a person possibly sleep for?" A gruff voice questioned. 

Ranma groaned as he felt someone kicking him, and just rolled over and covered himself with his blanket, "Ugh, leave me alone, jackasses. It's too early for this…"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A JACKASS, PUNK!" The same gruff voice yelled out. "Maa, maa, Zabuza-san, please clam down," a melodic voice said, "There's a much easier way to wake Ranma-dono up."

Ranma just smacked his lips as he felt himself being lifted up… then felt the wind on his face as he flew through the air… then opened his eyes in shock when he felt water entering his lungs, and quickly swam back up to the surface.

"Who threw me in the river!" He choked out, as he swam back to land. Natsumi just grinned cheekily and stuck out her tongue, "It's your own fault for sleeping so late, learn to wake up earlier and you won't have to go through such rude awakenings." She then looked at her accomplice, "Did you get all that?"

Ranma looked on in shock as Zabuza just nodded and handed the video camera back to her, "You damn she-devil, do you have to record everything I do!" His fit of rage was interrupted when he heard metal clashing with each other and turned his head to see his Kaijuu-chan and Haku-chan fighting each other. "Oi, that's just a friendly spar right?" He asked. Natsumi answered with a nod of the head, and put her hand on her cheek, "I think Haruko-chan loves fighting too much, I hope she doesn't grow up to be a tomboy."

"Bwahahahaha, I hope she does then I can start calling her Little Cute Tomboy …!" Sometimes, he wished he didn't speak his mind all the time because in that next moment he got a mouth full of grass.

"Hey runt…" Ranma spit the grass out and turned around to look at Zabuza with a questioning eyebrow, "Who do you think is going to win?"

He just smirked and told him the obvious answer, "Haruko-chan, of course… and I guess you're expecting Haku-chan to win?" Zabuza, without responding, simply turned his attention back to the spar.

Ranma just sighed exasperatedly and did the same, but Natsumi blinked in surprise at the man's indifferent silence, _'You think he could at least support the child……'_

Haruko quickly threw several shuriken which deflected the shower of needles thrown by Haku. She quickly ran towards him and leaped forward to try and side-kick him, only to have him ducked and counter by grabbing the back of her jacket and throwing her into the ground.

After skidding across the ground a little, Haruko stopped her momentum with her hand and pivoting on it to spin around and land back on her feet. Then she carefully looked around for her opponent, _'Oh man, I expected him to be good but this kid is almost as fast as a jounin…'_ Haku proved this by instantly appearing in front of her and engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

'_What…' _She blocked a roundhouse-kick. _'The…' _She parried a punch to the side and tried a reverse spin-kick, only to have him duck under it. _'Hell…'_ Haku swiftly rose up to uppercut her, but she managed to dodge by moving back. _'He's way too good to be a genin……' _Her contemplations was disrupted when her opponent knocked her off her feet with a low spin-kick, then pivoted on his other foot to hit her with another spin-kick, and finally ended his combo with a tornado-kick, which sent her flying through the air into a tree.

Just before Haku could continue his assault, he was forced to stop to avoid being hit by a kunai which made it's way into the ground in front of him. He then hopped back several times to dodge more kunai as they hit the ground, _'Strange, I'm being led in a pattern…'_

His suspicions were confirmed when a strong tackle to the back sent him flying into the air, and he saw Haruko standing before him with her fist cocked back, _'Wait, if she's there then who…!'_ He suddenly felt a pair of arms around his neck, putting him in a stranglehold, and turned his head to see another Haruko grinning cheerfully at him, _'Bunshin!'_ The real Haruko, on the ground, strongly punched Haku in the face as her water-clone directed him to her. The clone immediately let go of the boy, while the force of the punch sent him tumbling on the ground before slowly coming to a stop.

"Good teamwork," Haruko told her clone, as they smack hands, "Thank you, but it was all due to your brilliant strategy and radiant beauty, my queen…" The clone's praise/sucking up was cut short when a needle to the head quickly blew it up, and Haku ran through the exploded water to palm-strike Haruko in the chest, then spin-kicked her in the cheek.

He formed some hand-seals, "Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishou (Secret Skill: Flying Water Needles)," and the water around him formed into hundreds of ice needles which all made their way towards Haruko, who was shakily getting up, stabbing every portion of her body.

"AAAHHHHHH!" Amazingly, Haruko was still standing after all that except now she had multiple cuts all over and was losing massive amounts of blood. "That's it, I was going easy on you 'cause you look like a cute dolly…" She quickly growled out, and slowly lowered her head to glare at him with her Sharingan, "But if you want to fight me for real……"

She quickly shot off the ground, making a small crater, right towards the bland-looking Haku, "Then you better get ready to suffer the consequences!"

As soon as she was in range of attacking, she felt a pair of arms quickly wrap around her and pick her up. "Kaijuu-chan, I think that's enough," Ranma gently admonished with a smile, Natsumi was in front of her healing what was left of her wounds with a medical jutsu. Haruko just growled in frustration and clenched her fist, _'Stupid brat, I don't even know what that water jutsu was but I'm sure it's not something you use in a light spar.'_ She narrowed her eyes and lightly bit her lower lip, _'…He was really trying to kill me.'_

Ranma and Natsumi revealed this as well, which was the reason why they interfered, and all three Konoha-ninja looked over at the two Mist-ninja who were having a quiet conversation.

"Haku, were you trying to eliminate that girl?" Zabuza patiently asked. After a small pause, he hesitantly shook his head, making his mentor narrow his eyes, "Don't lie to me Haku, answer truthfully." The boy looked down and slowly nodded his head, then flinched when he felt a large hand on his head, "Such a good boy…" He looked up in surprise to see the Devil of the Mist grinning evilly, "…you've learned well from my lesson in destroying all those who get in your way. But for this one time, we'll make an exception since these people are friends of our 'friend,' after all it just won't do to make an enemy out of that boy."

Zabuza turned his head to meet the eyes of Ranma, "He won't kill us, that's for sure. He'll never betray his so-called 'Pacifist-Ninja' ways, but I'm positive if we do anything to harm his nakama, he'll make sure that we can never achieve our dream. It sickens me really, that someone with such great potential decided to take the pussy's road in life……"

"Oi, Zabuza-san!" Ranma called out and arrogantly smirked, "Now that the children are done playing, how 'bout you and I show them what a real fight looks like?" Natsumi held Haruko's hand and dragged her away from the soon-to-be bloody battlefield, all the while ignoring the complaints and whining of one teenager, "B-but Natsumi-san! Why are we moving **away** from the best seats in the house!"

Zabuza simply pushed Haku away to the forest and picked up his sword and leaned it over his shoulder, "Confident, are we now?"

"Yup, enough to know that I can beat you even in the dark," This caused Zabuza to cackle in delight, and Ranma to raise an eyebrow, _'I don't get it, why does everyone always laugh at me? It's getting irritating.'_

"The dark you say," Zabuza ominously whispered then chuckled, "How about a thick mist instead…?"

Ranma's eyes widened in shock and he quickly ran over to the older man, silently hoping that it wasn't too late but it was. Even though he managed to reach Zabuza in time and quickly sliced him with a swing of his katana, he looked on in mute horror as the man's body melted into water and mist started to envelope his surroundings.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Technique)" He heard Zabuza's voice state from all around him.

'_It's probably Mizu-Bunshin, that's just great. Combine this with the mist… plus one devil who specializes in assassination…… oh crap, I'm so screwed.'_ By now, he was praying that this was all just a bad dream.

"I'll admit Ranma, under normal circumstances, you'll beat me in a straight fight." Ranma looked around to pinpoint the voice, but was forced to duck under the heavy swing from Zabuza's Sword, Kubikiri Houcho, which quickly disappeared into the mist.

"But in this kind of situation, can you really use your full power and win like usual?" Ranma was blown away as a giant water blast threw him off his feet and roughly into the dirt, where he became deeply imbedded.

"Hehehe… I didn't think so," Ranma quickly pulled himself out of the hole and rolled forward to avoid being cut in half by that big-ass sword. He inwardly cursed when the sword dissolved into water just as he was about to grab it, that man certainly was inventive with his jutsus.

"Now, prepare yourself… for the Art of Silent Assassination……"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Author's Comments (R&R)

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Sorry, but I felt it was best to cut it off here. More dramatic, better foreshadowing, plus it keeps you all excited for the upcoming fight which by the way, I plan on making the longest and the best fight-scene I ever done, mostly cause these two guys have similar personalities…… I'll elaborate more in the next chapter.

I wasn't too sure if Zabuza was in-character, but then again it's not like it matters because it's still 5 years in the past. A lot of things could have happened over the next few years to make Zabuza angrier, the biggest obviously being the failed assassination attempt at Mizukage.

I only put the flashback in this chapter because I wanted to show what Haruko could in a real fight, with her increased attributes. The only reason I didn't show Natsumi's fight was because it's easy to imagine what happened, without even reading the details. Jyuuken + Chakra Bones Kaguyas being owned!


	11. The Devil of the Mist

**The Shinobi of Legends**

**By CrossoverFanatic**

**Chapter 11 – The Devil of the Mist **

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto… even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Hyuuga Natsumi, and Uchiha Haruko, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

**Summary:** The return of a true monster.

* * *

"characters talking"

'_characters thinking'_

* * *

"**Now, prepare yourself… for the Art of Silent Assassination……"**

"Silent, huh? For a fighting style that's supposed to be silent, you sure do yap a lot," Ranma taunted, as he perked his ears and reached for his katana.

The only response he got was a quiet growl from all around, _'Oh yeah, it's definitely Mizu-Bunshin…'_ The next thing he saw was a giant blade coming right at him, "What the fu…!!!" He quickly ducked under the flying projectile, but was forced back as he blocked another thrown sword with his katana. The strength of the throw forced him to skid on the ground before he purposely fell down, back-first, letting the weapon pass by him, then quickly jumped back to his feet to avoid being beheaded by a third blade.

"Zabuza-san, are you trying to kill me?!?!?!" He was answered with a swing of yet another sword from behind, which he swiftly jumped over and landed on, only to fall back on his feet as it melted into water. "That's it, enough playing damsel in distress!!! Ouragan (Hurricane)!!!" Ranma swung his sword and created a huge gust of wind which blew away a portion of the mist, along with several water-clones.

Unfortunately for the young ninja, this just left him wide open which Zabuza quickly took advantage of by commanding all his clones to throw their swords at once. "Ah crud," Ranma muttered as he saw giant shadows quickly coming towards him, and immediately threw his katana into the sky and made a hand-seal……

Zabuza smirked at the sudden silence and chuckled, "Hehehe, easier than I expected." When the sound of water splashing down filled the area, he quickly turned his head only to see a stream of fire headed towards him. He brought his sword down as fast as he could to extinguish the flame, and then looked around to see that his clones didn't have that same luck as multiple streams of fire set them ablaze.

The only reason he could even tell through the thick mist was because of the fire, but where was it coming from? Zabuza deactivated his mist jutsu, only to have his eyes widen in shock at what he saw, Ranma… several of them were standing on top of each other's shoulders, holding their katanas in front of them, making a circle-shaped pyramid. _'Interesting, they deflected away all the swords… that sneaky little runt.'_

"Hell yeah!!!" The real Ranma hollered from the very top of the pyramid, "You can't beat me that easily!!!" Just then he saw a shadow rush into the pyramid and almost instantly the shadow-clones on the bottom disappeared, causing the pyramid to almost collapse. "…What now?" He looked down to see Zabuza in the middle, swinging his sword around, imitating a buzz-saw. Ranma quickly jumped off before he got chop apart too, and landed in front of the water-clone, who tried to cut him in half regardless. However, Ranma blocked the attack with his katana and then strongly kicked the clone in the testicles causing it to grimace in pain and explode into water.

"I can't believe it…" Ranma said, as Zabuza finished destroying the last of his clones, "When did you have time to make a water-clone?"

Zabuza just smirked condescendingly, "I made one before I canceled the mist-jutsu. It was my clone that did everything from there on in, figures that a stupid infant like you wouldn't be able to tell."

Ignoring the insult, Ranma threw several kunai and shuriken, which was immediately blown away from a swing of that massive sword. But that was exactly what he wanted the man to do, he use his speed to instantly reach Zabuza as the sword was brought downward and used a jumping side-kick to hit the man right in the face.

Zabuza flew off the ground, but cut his flight short by stabbing the ground with Kubikiri Houcho…… all according to plan.

"Bingo," Ranma smirked as his katana came down to pierce Zabuza on the top of his head, but he had no idea why he was so surprised when the man 'poofed' into a log.

He rolled forward to avoid being slashed by Zabuza's sword, then pushed upward with his hands to double-stomp the older man on the face, which was cleanly blocked by the giant sword. Ranma flipped back to his feet, and used a chakra string to pull his katana back to him.

Meanwhile Zabuza was getting ready to slash the young boy in front of him, but Ranma managed to get his katana in time to block the attack, but due to the raw power of the swing, he was still thrown off his feet and made a deep crater in the floor.

The moment Ranma hit the ground, Zabuza made the hand-seals for Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Technique), and surrounded the area with a thick fog. "Geez, not this again," Ranma complained as he wearily stood up, and started using his own set of hand-seals.

"Doton: Retsudo Tenshou (Earth Type: Splitting Earth Force)!!!" Ranma slammed his hands on the ground creating several fissures in the earth, causing it to rapidly break apart and rise up. He was satisfied to hear the sounds of water exploding, _'Now for this mist…'_ and quickly used more hand-seals.

"Fuuton: Kamaitachi (Wind Type: Slashing Wind)!!!" He exhaled and created a huge burst of wind that blew away part of the mist, but then he kept slowly turning around to get rid of the rest as well. Just as the final portion of the mist was blown away, Zabuza made his reappearance from behind and quickly swung his fist to hit Ranma with the back of his hand. Afterwards, he roundhouse-kicked the boy in the chest, then jumped up to roughly stomp him to the ground, and to end it, Zabuza brought his sword down to behead him only to have him 'poof' into smoke.

The Mist-nin was pulled underground as two hands popped out from the earth, to drag him down. He saw Ranma rise out in front of him, who then ran forward to strongly kick the man in the head, the impact was so powerful that it ripped the man's head right off. As the decapitated head was flying off, it dissolved into water……

"Holy Crap…" Natsumi muttered in amazement. She was looking at the action through a camera lens, there was no way she was missing this opportunity!!! _'Oh man, these pictures are going to make a great inclusion for my photo book,'_ she excitedly thought.

"Su-sugoi!!!" Haruko exclaimed in excitement, she'd never seen a high-level battle like this before.

"……" Haku just watched silently with an emotionless expression.

"Bwahahahaha!!! Unbelievable, it seems like you're the one trying to kill me here punk," Zabuza amusingly taunted as he walked out of the forest. Ranma just chortled in response, "Yeah right, the only reason I'm going so hard is because I can tell which ones are water-clones. At this kind of level we're fighting at, the water-clones' chakra are too low to be really you. That's the downfall of Mizu-Bunshin, you can only put ten percent of your power into them." Haruko saw Ranma quickly glance at her from the corner of his eyes and realized the comment was meant for her ears.

Zabuza saw this action and quietly scoffed, _'Unbelievable, he's actually giving an impromptu lesson for that kid while fighting me at the same time…'_ He then grinned menacingly as the water around him started to boil from his immense chakra, "Hehehe, while this is fun and all gaki, I think it's time I end this little charade."

"End? Why do that Zabuza-san, especially when the fight's just getting to the good part," Ranma smirked and made his eyes glow red, the air around him started condensing and building up into steam due to his own chakra release.

"Ranma-dono… I never realized before…" Natsumi mumbled as she kept recording and held Haruko closer to her. The young Uchiha didn't notice as she was positively ecstatic that the ensuing battle increased yet another level, _'Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight…'_ was the single-tracked thought running through her mind.

"……" No change in Haku.

Both fighters quickly unleashed a giant fireball and waterball which blew up upon contact with each other. They ran through the steam, built up from the attacks, to meet mid-way and engaged in sword combat, which Zabuza had the upper hand since he was stronger and his sword was much, much bigger. Ranma bent over backwards to avoid a slash and used a rising-kick to send the sword upwards, then hopped up to head-butt the man in the face but at the same time, Zabuza quickly swung his sword back down to vertically slice Ranma in half. The 'poof' signified that it was nothing but a shadow-clone…

"Tempête de Feu (Firestorm)!!!" A voice cried out from behind. The real Ranma pulled his arms back and thrusted his katana forward into the air to create a huge firestream, surrounded by multiple feather-shaped flames.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Type: Explosion Skill)!!!" Zabuza created a large cyclone-shaped tsunami from the river to counter the fire-blast. There was a brief power-struggle before both attacks eventually fizzled out.

Ranma and Zabuza both ran around the steam dome, only to jerk back when they saw that their opponents were missing. "Hey, where'd you go!!!" Ranma shouted. "I'm right over here you idiot, who told you to go over to the other side!!!" Zabuza shouted back.

"Well I didn't realize there were rules to a fight, you stupid baby devil!!!"

"What'd you call me, you snot-nose dumbass punk!!!"

"You heard me, you spiky-teeth brainless meathead!!!"

"Why you gutless little bitch, come over here and say that!!!!!!"

The three ninjas sweat-dropped as they watched the ninja fight transform into a kindergarten-level shouting match, _'They're just like little kids…'_

Having enough with just yelling profanity, the two fighters jumped **over** the fog, and went back to beating each other up, this time with their fists. Both their punches collided in mid-air and the impact forced them to fly backwards, but each landed on their feet and skidded on the ground before quickly running towards each other again.

Ranma leaped forward to strike with a jumping side-kick, which was parried by a punch. Zabuza tried to take advantage by using an uppercut which was blocked by a foot, since Ranma turned his body around and landed on his hand.

The boy then flipped back to his feet and tried a reverse spin-kick which Zabuza ducked under, and the older man attempted another uppercut, which directly hit its target this time. As Ranma's head was forced back, Zabuza kicked at his mid-section causing him to fold up, then grabbed him by his hair and kneed him in face, and finally just back-handed him across the ground.

Ranma tumbled on the floor before stopping with his hand and back-flipping onto his feet. "Colombe du Feu (Fire-Dove)!!!" Using his katana, he slashed the air in an X-pattern, which tore open a hole in the air and soon hundreds of firebirds flew out of it.

Zabuza counter with his own jutsu, "Suiton: Suikoudan no Jutsu (Water Type: Water Shark Blast Technique)!!!" and made a water-shark from the river which immediately engulfed the fire-doves, and went speeding towards Ranma.

'_Oh crap!!!'_ Ranma used the 'Invisible Swing' to instantly swing his sword downwards and before anyone knew what happened, the water-shark suddenly split into two before exploding around Ranma, harmlessly drizzling him with imitation rain.

"……" Even Zabuza was impressed by this feat, after all it wasn't everyday that he saw a giant shark get cut in half.

"……" Haku was the same, but his facial expression showed that he was surprised as well. This only reinforced the fact that Ranma-san definitely deserved his respect.

"……" Natsumi and Haruko would have said something, but **couldn't** at the moment since their jaws were dropped down to the floor and their eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"Alright then…" Ranma gasped after sheathing his sword and taking off his wet shirt, "Let's continue, Zabuza-san." He immediately disappeared and skidded to a stop behind Zabuza, who wasn't caught off-guard as the Konoha-ninja hoped and quickly used a backwards thrust-kick. Ranma somersaulted forward to dodge and landed on the extended leg with his hands, then rapidly spun around to kick Zabuza-san several times in the face. Afterwards he twisted his body to land on his feet, and shot himself towards the fallen man, only to hop back to avoid a downwards-slash of Kubikiri Houcho.

The two ninjas met eyes and a silent message was formed, this was it…

"Katon: Karyuu Endan (Flame Type: Fire Dragon Blast)!!!" Ranma shot off a giant fire-dragon from his mouth.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu (Water Type: Water Dragon Technique)!!!" A giant water-dragon erupted from the river behind Zabuza.

Both dragons collided right between the two combatants. Each ninja tried to overpower the other, but they couldn't find the strength to maintain their attacks and the dragons instantly combusted, sending Ranma into the trees and Zabuza into the raging river.

A few seconds later, the fighters dragged themselves out of their respective predicaments, moaning and groaning, then got back to their feet, exhaustedly gasping for breath. However, the looks on their faces sent chills down the backs of the three onlookers.

"I don't understand, they're smiling…" Natsumi whispered in shock, "How can they look so happy after beating each other to such extents?" Haruko was just blinking a lot with a look of confusion in her eyes.

Haku uttered a single word for the first time since this fight began, "… Incredible."

'_It's been too long…!!! This is how a real fight is suppose to be!!!'_ This was the single thought running through both these ninjas' minds.

"Hahahaha…" Ranma and Zabuza grinned in anticipation and charged each other once more. But just before their fists could make contact, a blur quickly appeared in front of them and parried their punches, then spun on her hands to kick them off their feet.

"I think you boys have had enough fun, after all I think the kids have had enough excitement for one day," Natsumi whispered while staring down the two grounded ninja, and activated her Byukugan, "Or do you have any objections?"

Ranma shook his head, while Zabuza just growled. Neither objected, of course, since they were both seriously low on chakra. "Bah whatever," Zabuza grumbled, "It figures that you'd have to get saved by a girl, after all you kunoichi have to look out for each other huh, Ranma-**chan**."

The only response he received was a twitch of the left eye and a pulsating vein on the young ninja's forehead. "Yeah right…" Ranma waved his hand in a 'shooing' motion as he got up, "Zabuza-san was the one who got saved by Natsumi. Look at you, you can't even stand straight, must be that touch of arthritis at your old age."

"My legs aren't the ones shaking like a little chicken's, kozou (brat)…"

An anger-mark appeared next to the vein on Ranma's forehead, "Well at least I'm not wheezing and gasping like a 100-year old granny, but then again it's good to see you finally acting your own age."

Zabuza gritted his teeth and clenched his hand into a tight fist causing multiple veins to pop out, "Well this granny would have kicked your ass, if it hadn't been for that Hyuuga girl!!!"

"………" Ranma growled.

"………" Zabuza glared.

"YOU WANT FIGHT AGAIN, OLD MAN/PUNK!!!!!!" They simultaneously yelled at each other before Natsumi, who had enough of the testosterone, roughly punch them in the stomach causing them to lose consciousness. "Boys…" She sighed out, before kicking them towards the campsite, right into their respective sleeping bags.

"Wow… you've got great aim, Natsumi-san," Haruko whispered.

"Hehehe," She bashfully laughed and rubbed the back of her head, "Oh that was nothing, come on Haruko-chan let's get some breakfast." Natsumi turned to the forest and yelled out, "Haku!!! Come on, I'll make something for you too!!!"

Haku slowly walked out and towards the girls, all the while starring at the snoring men……

* * *

"You awake, gaki?" Zabuza asked as he shifted to a more comfortable position on top of the bag. 

A grunt was heard from next to him, verifying that the brat was still conscience. "Geez, we must have busted each other pretty badly if Natsumi was able to get the jump on us," Ranma moaned as he settled on his back to stare at the sky. "Ano…" He became a little worried when his companion said nothing, "Why are you so quiet? Usually you'd say something about how nobody could ever surprise you"

"You know…" Zabuza started to say as he turned his head to glare at the young boy, "I hate it when my opponents hold back against me, whether it be in a real fight or a sparring match."

Ranma's eyes slightly widened in surprise, "Huh, what the hell are you talking about?" He sat up and looked the man right in his eyes, "Don't you think I have more respect for you than to insult you by doing something as degrading than that? I know you care more about your pride than you like to show, why would you even accuse me of something like holding back anyway?"

The mist-nin turned to look at the other three ninjas on the other side of the campsite, Natsume was currently doing her best to try and teach Haruko and Haku the proper ways of seasoning a fish, while dicing up some vegetables and fruits. "Because I saw how your attention turned away from the battle to that small girl, even if it was just for a second. If you were really taking it seriously then you wouldn't have done that, not even for that brief a moment."

Ranma just scoffed and flopped onto his sleeping bag while closing his eyes and rubbing his eyelids to try and relieve some stress, "you're getting bent out of shape because of that? Geez, when did you get so sensitive? Is it that time of the month for you or something?" He slightly jumped in a startle when Zabuza slammed his fist into the ground beside his head and opened his eyes to see the older man glaring down at him in a crouching position.

In an instant, Zabuza grabbed the front of Ranma's shirt and roughly pulled him to his feet. "Quit joking around!!!" He angrily growled, "What the hell were you thinking?! I don't give a damn if you were the 'Bloody Rain' of the Fire-Earth war, nobody plays around with me!!!!!!"

Ranma just stared coldly at his fellow shinobi then grabbed his wrist and twisted, forcing Zabuza to let go, "I told you before, that name… belonged to someone else…" He sat back down on his bag and laid down then sighed, "Also if you had waited a second or two, I would have explained…"

After several minutes of silence, Zabuza's lips twisted into a scowl when he saw Ranma starting to whistle, "Well, what's the hold-up? Aren't you going to explain?!"

Ranma just smirked and then started to dramatically wheeze and gasp, "Well I would love to, but it seems like my throat was recently hurt when someone roughly manhandled me like the shit-eating gorilla he is." He started laugh hysterically when Zabuza took a stomp forward then waved his hands in front of him to ward the older ninja away. "Okay, okay, I'll talk. Seriously, get a tadpole, totem pole, whatever the hell that thing is called that you women use for this time of the month."

He let off a few more chuckles before clearing his throat, "Anyway the reason why I looked away for that tiny brief moment was because I figured that time would be a good time to show my kohei (student) the weaknesses of Mizu-Bunshin since she uses it as well. After all, we were in the middle of witty banter, I figured what would hurt to take a quick second, well not even that it was more like a millisecond to send my cute, little Kaijuu-chan that message."

Zabuza simply stared at the younger boy for a few more seconds before he started chuckling, "I never thought you would be capable of properly teaching anyone from the things about your brother."

Ranma jumped to his feet and pointed his finger at the laughing man in anger, "Hey that was not my fault!!! That little brat just sucks at learning!!!" Then he simply turned away and sat down and started mumbling to himself about how a shark-man who dresses like a mummy shouldn't be criticizing others about teaching.

"Hey, brat… just what did you mean before when you said the name 'Bloody Rain' belonged to someone else?" Ranma took a small peek over his shoulder to see Zabuza looking down at him with a serious expression, before looking down, "If I recall correctly, 'Bloody Rain' was the title given to a five-year old who massacred an entire village of Hidden Earth ninja spies."

Ranma's eyes widened in horror and he started to breathe heavy as images of hundreds of bloody people flashed in his head, "That wasn't me… I didn't mean to, they all… they just suddenly came up to me, carrying weapons and before I knew it everything went red." He clutched his head in an effort to drive the images away, but all it did was make his headache worse, "It couldn't have been me, it just couldn't have!!! I promised my parents that I would never take a life, Uzumaki Ranma never breaks a promise…"

Zabuza just scoffed and began walking towards the river, "Face it brat, it was you, you of all people should know that you have to accept the things you've done in life, whether they were intentional or mistakes. As for why you can't remember, well you were a kid, a young, inexperienced stupid kid out in real combat, it's not surprising that your tiny brain kept things locked up to prevent you from going insane. As for how you killed hundreds within such a short period, again yet another easy answer… fear! It's simply amazing what a person is capable of when they pissing their pants in fear, especially when they're young."

Zabuza started laughing out loud, "Oh god, it's even better when they're young because the victims are never expecting it!!! The look of shock and disbelief on their faces just before they die are hilarious!!! Gyahahahahaha!!!!

Ranma just curled up into a ball and tried his hardest to keep the tears from falling, "… Damn it, just goddamn it."

Natsumi and Haruko slowly walked out in shock from where they were hiding in the bushes and tried to consult Ranma. "Ranma-dono, it's going to be alright," She started as she put her arm around his shoulders and rubbed his back, "There are many shinobi who block out the horrible memories of war, you just need to…"

She gasped in surprise when Ranma jumped up and look at her in anger, "That's just it!!! I didn't forget!!! How could I!!! I remember everything of what happened that night!!! I remember every single head that came off, every single arm or leg I ripped away, I remember that I kept screaming to myself in my head to stop, about how I just wanted to stop. But I couldn't!!! My body just kept acting on its own…"

Natsumi looked on in worry as Ranma started to shake, while Haruko adopted a wide-eyed expression as she drop the flowers that she was carrying. "Zabuza-san was right, it's amazing what fear can do to a person, it can even force the body to act on its natural instinct to just live and ignore all signals the brain gives it." He looked at his hands in shame, "Time and time again, I tell my brother that if you're not ready up here," he tapped his head, "Then it doesn't matter how big these are," he squeezed the muscles on his arm, "The only thing you'll be is an oversized meat bag for the wolves."

Ranma covered his face, "Oh god, I wish I was stronger back then… god, how I wish…"

Natsumi looked away as she noticed Haruko began crying too, she kneeled down and took the young Uchiha by the shoulders who jumped slightly at the contact. "Haruko-chan, its times like this that he needs us to be strong," She softly said, "But most of all… he just needs us."

Haruko looked in confusion at Natsumi then at Ranma before she picked up the flower she dropped before and started to take small steps towards her distraught teacher. "Ranma-san… I, umm… picked these flowers for you as thanks for all you've helped me with," He looked at her in surprise before tentatively reaching for the flowers, "Also I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened to you, but you shouldn't blame yourself for something you had no control over because it wasn't your fault. It might seem that way, but it just wasn't."

The child fiercely hugged the man and buried herself in his chest, all the while mumbling that it wasn't his fault. He stared at her in shock and confusion for a while before he made the connection to this burst of emotion as he made eye contact with Natsumi. _'She's thinking about the Uchiha Massacre,'_ He thought in realization as he hugged the girl back and started rocking her back and forth, _'She's still blaming herself for how she couldn't do anything to stop Itachi.'_

"And you, you shouldn't blame yourself either Kaijuu-chan," Ranma gently pushed Haruko back at arms' distance and leaned his forehead on hers, "No matter what, never blame yourself for things that were out of your control…never…" He pulled her back into a hug and let her cry some more, then he looked up as Natsumi came around and hug the young girl as well and began whispering words of reassurance into her ear.

'_God…'_ He thought bitterly to herself, as he stared at the beautiful bouquet the young girl in his arms gave him, _'Life is just so fucked up…'_

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Author's Comments (R&R)

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Well, it seems like I'm continuing this story so I implore all my faithful readers, please don't complain about too many original characters in the future because it's going to include plenty more (and believe me, they're going to make a ton of sense since I'm filling in all the stuff Kishimoto-sensei left out, so just be patient and take a leap of faith.)

And rejoice for all those who hate Harem-fics because I just realized… I suck at romance!!! So I'm going to change some things so that only Anko and Kurenai are the only lovers of Ranma and the only romance you're really going to see is a few kissing scenes, mentions of people going at it, and of course embarrassing situations for our hero. Besides, while Tsunade may be hot… come on, she's really a wrinkled prune in her real form. I can't even begin to imagine how much chakra she must really have to keep in that fake form 24/7.

You know, the ironic thing is that the only reason I even started this fic was to pair up Ranma with a whole bunch of women, but the more I thought up the storyline the more I pushed the romance away for drama and action/adventure. So rejoice for my lack of interest in all things romance outside of real life!!!!!!

Sorry about this chapter being so short, I'm working on my own original manga/s and with college, well my brain hasn't has time for anything else. But just to let everyone know I'm going to redo some past chapters just to make it flow better and to exclude the sexual stuff with Tsunade. And my thanks to those who kept bitching and moaning about how unbelievable it was to have a shinobi who doesn't kill without a "real" reason, how I couldn't think this up without incentive simply astounds me.

Also I'm going to continue working on my Ranma/One Piece story… but I'm going to have to change a lot of things on that, so be patient about that too.


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